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

My amendment No. 5 seeks an outright ban on disposable vapes and will enable the Minister, at whatever point he and his Government colleagues decide is the appropriate time to ban disposable vapes, to do so. I believe that should happen as quickly as possible, although I recognise that another process is under way and the Minister of State, Deputy Ossian Smyth, is working on that. Again, my concern is that if there is a recommendation - it seems that is the way it is going, given that the strong indications from all the surveys are that we should ban disposable vapes - we will not have another delay whereby we will have to go through the entire process of producing more legislation. We are getting close to the dog days of the Government and I do not have confidence there is going to be a second item of legislation. There is no guarantee that is going to happen within the lifetime of the Government. This will allow the Minister to take action at the appropriate time to ban disposable vapes by regulation, without having to go back to the drawing board and start the drafting process again for primary legislation.

There are a number of aspects to disposable vapes. They are a relatively new phenomenon, clearly designed to attract children to start vaping, and we know vaping is, inarguably, a gateway to smoking. Considering all the progress made in this country over recent years on reducing the rates of smoking, they are now going up again among young people. Disposable vapes attract young people very much because they are so much cheaper than the standard, non-disposable ones, if we can call them that. They are also much easier to hide. You can have one in your pocket or stashed away in your schoolbag, and that is what children are doing. They are cheaper and more accessible, they are displayed in shops beside sweets, and they are absolutely designed to ensnare young people to get into the very unhealthy practice of vaping and the inevitable next step, smoking. There are very strong arguments on public health grounds, therefore, for banning disposable vapes.

There are also, of course, equally strong arguments on environmental grounds. Any of us who attend residents' association meetings in our constituencies will be very aware of a growing complaint about the level of disposable vape litter all over the place, outside shops and schools and in public places. These coloured disposable vapes can be seen everywhere and they pose a very significant environmental threat. They contain plastic, metal and a battery, all of which are huge threats to the safe disposal of refuse. They pose considerable challenges to local authorities and incur additional costs arising from their safe disposal. Critically, a huge environmental issue is involved. While the Minister of State, Deputy Smyth, is working away on his aspect of that in the context of the circular economy, I do not want us to find ourselves, where there is a strong recommendation from him to ban disposable vapes, without having the legislation ready to do that.

What I propose, therefore, in amendment No. 5 is that the Minister will be enabled to ban disposable vapes by regulation, at the stroke of a pen, without having to go back to the long, drawn-out primary legislation process. The Minister has stated in the media that he wants to ban disposable vapes and there are very strong public health recommendations for doing that, and my amendment will simply enable him to do that when his colleague has finished the process in which he is engaged. I urge him strongly to take it on board.