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

This is a ludicrous situation. Here we are with a Bill before us that is capable of addressing all of our concerns and all of the public health concerns about vaping. There is an urgency about that but the Minister is telling us he is only going to move ahead with one particular aspect of this issue. He is basically kicking the can down the road on all of the other public concerns there are about this. The Minister has the ability to address those concerns in this legislation. We have sent the Minister clear advice on that. There are several submissions we have received from reputable health sources, including the Irish Cancer Society and the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland. In addition, a lot of surveying has been done on children's attitudes. Nonetheless, the Minister is saying to us that while he is not happy about all of these public health threats, including predatory advertising, packaging, disposable vapes and flavourings, he is refusing to address those issues in this legislation. It is just a cod to talk about bringing in a second Bill. The Minister has been all over the media in recent weeks talking about his determination to address all of these issues. He has the opportunity to do that now and he is refusing to do so. It is entirely unacceptable from the Minister for Health that he is passing up on this opportunity to do something of real consequence.

On the 12-month review, this is not a review about the public health benefits of the legislation. It is the sole objective of legislation to achieve public health benefits. The purpose of a review is to consider the operation of the new legislation and to see if it is doing what it is intended to. The purpose of a review is to see if big tobacco will find ways, as it normally does, around the legislation and to find where things need to be tightened up. Those are the purposes of the review and the idea of doing something as a grand gesture and then looking at it in three years’ time just does not cut it and is not acceptable. I urge members of the committee to do what we all agreed on in the pre-legislative scrutiny process and take this opportunity to do something of real consequence in public health.