Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I will speak to my amendments Nos. 3 and 9. This committee spent a considerable amount of time doing pre-legislative scrutiny on this legislation. We had several sessions and consulted large numbers of interested parties. We made 22 recommendations and, as far as I can, see none of those has been taken on board at all. We were not doing this for fun. We approached this task in a serious manner and we devoted considerable time to it. It is a kick in the teeth that the Minister has not taken on board any of the recommendations whatsoever. Later I will speak about the issues of flavourings, packaging, advertising and disposable vapes. I have separate amendments on those.

I do not agree with amendment No. 1 because I do not believe we should delay addressing those issues. The attractiveness of vapes for young people is a huge public health issue as it is. We cannot wait 12 months to consider these matters. This committee has already considered all those matters. I will be moving individual amendments on those issues. However, I am encapsulating the first recommendation from the committee's pre-legislative scrutiny which is that the legislation should be reviewed one year after enactment as proposed in amendment No. 3. It is good practice with new legislation. It is a very important area and after 12 months we should review the operation of the legislation to see if it is doing what it was intended to do.

Amendment No. 9 calls for, as recommended in the pre-legislative scrutiny process, a report after six months on the supports that should be available to people who are trying to cease smoking. Those cessation supports are absolutely necessary. There are issues with the cost of those for people. If this is a serious effort to discourage people from smoking and ceasing their smoking habit, we should have a report on improvements to those supports within six months. I urge the Minister to accept amendments Nos. 3 and 9.