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

Apologies for being late, but I was speaking on the statements on mental health and it was an unfortunate clash.

Regarding smoking cessation supports, over the last two years this committee has dealt a lot with vaping and smoking. We urge the Minister to accelerate the production of the legislation to deal with the flavours and disposable vapes which we called for at this committee over two years ago. We hope that we will see that but I am concerned that we will not at this stage in the game.

What is the Minister's thinking on a situation, which we will hopefully have in the near future, where disposable and flavoured vapes will be outlawed?

There will be strict rules on the number of vape flavours available. Why, then, is the Minister seeking to impose a tax on vapes? Presumably, if the new legislation is produced quickly, as promised, we will have a situation whereby we will be dealing with the very widespread issue of vaping by children. However, one would assume that the nicotine-flavoured vapes are predominantly used by adults in an attempt to cease smoking. What is the Minister's rationale for putting a tax on those vapes?