Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I would agree with a lot of what my colleague, Deputy Shortall, has said there. The purpose of the exercise, insofar as I was concerned and from the previous discussions, was to address all of the issues that looked like a threat through encouraging adults or children back into smoking by a circuitous route. That means all of the possible issues, including the sale to children, which the Minister mentioned, and the use of flavours, some of which are banned already, come in under a package and have a potential that is worrisome. As well as that, the area of vaping is taking on a new meaning. The shopfront has become a major display area and it looks to me there could be situation, notwithstanding the proposal in the legislation, that somebody may decide or have found a way to circumvent the proposals.

I mention nicotine, for instance, and I was a smoker but I gave it up. Thankfully, I did not have to replace smoking with anything else, yet and I hope not ever. Having ceased smoking or having decided not to smoke, something could be introduced that might inveigle the person back into thinking they need to do something, which is something similar to what they did before but not as harmful. There are two sides to that argument. First, there may be a possibility of introducing new clients to the market on the basis this is not as bad as what was here before or it is not as bad as nicotine.

The person is then trapped into experimenting and then vaping becomes habit-forming in the same way as the previous situation.

I am also told that some products are banned in some countries in the European Union. I know there are, but I do not know if the same is intended here and to keep an eye on the European Union. We all found it difficult at the beginning to get precise information, and opinions were sought from overseas, regarding the cause or causes that might lead people, children or otherwise, but particularly young people, into vaping. My colleagues, including Deputy Colm Burke and others, have raised a question about packaging and sales, including the numbers of cigarettes contained in a package in a way that might encourage young people to spend in a particular way and the dangers inherent in this.

Additionally, there is not a great lot of sense in having largely got rid of the smoking issue throughout the country only to think it might work its way back in an acceptable way via vaping by starting off through encouraging children and flavours and people to then become dependent on it. The question is whether they are new smokers or previously reformed smokers. If people become dependent on the new cigarettes, as suggested and seems to be the case, then we are not doing the job in the way it was intended. It is as simple as that. If vaping becomes a habit in the same way as the habit we had before, and somebody says it is a harmless habit, I do not accept it. I think there are too many dangers here for the harm to be allowed to creep back into the system again.

I am inclined to make a suggestion regarding what we do now. Notwithstanding the continuing surveillance of the legislation and its impact, and in this context the various shapes of the ingredients and what form they might take, given the drug industry we have also experienced here, let us not forget that children are being targeted all the time in national schools and in second-level schools. We must, therefore, regard this situation as akin to that one. Whatever we do in one situation, we must also do in the other. Whatever we propose to do for the benefit of the population to safeguard people's health, we must be right down the line with it, with no bends or curves in the implementation.