Hildegarde Naughton (Galway West, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Senator for his questions. I will start with the question relating to further regulation of tobacco and nicotine inhaling products. As he is aware, we have banned the sale of vapes for under-18s. In January, we had a public consultation process which closed at the end of that month. It was set up to help to inform further legislation which will be required on this issue. We sought the views of people and stakeholders on the display of nicotine inhaling products in shops, flavours, which has been a very controversial issue, the appearance of nicotine-inhaling products and their packaging, proxy sales of tobacco and nicotine-inhaling products, smoking in outdoor dining areas, extending smoke-free restrictions to vaping, increasing the age of sale for tobacco products and taxation of vaping liquids. That latter measure falls within the remit of the Department of Finance. That work is ongoing within the Department and legislation in that regard will be going through the Houses of the Oireachtas. I welcome the views of members in that regard.

When Healthy Ireland was set up back in 2015, it had a budget of €5 million. In the most recent budget, I secured an additional €2.3 million for the programme. To date, we have a budget of €16.3 million for Healthy Ireland. I have travelled the length and breadth of the country visiting local communities and local authorities to see what they are doing in the roll-out of Healthy Ireland projects and initiatives. There is fantastic work happening throughout the country, which is why I was very committed to increasing the funding. The Senator referred to walking trails and the GAA. The Ireland Lights Up GAA campaign is being expanded. I allocated extra funding last year for walking trails around GAA pitches because an earlier call for proposals was oversubscribed. This campaign will benefit those who may not be taking part in Gaelic games, such as grandparents or parents who are dropping kids off to sports or matches, but who will be able to use the facilities, which will be lit up and safe. There was significant buy-in from local communities. It was not just for the GAA. A fundamental part of the funding is that it is for the whole community. In the budget just gone, I included a provision of €1 million for outdoor walking trails. Again, we will be looking at devising a call, not just for GAA but also for other groups throughout the country, to facilitate walking tracks, as well as outdoor swimming infrastructure. The is the uptake of sea swimming, particularly during Covid, has been remarkable. There is a lack of simple infrastructure required by local communities throughout the country and we are drawing up proposals in that regard.

The Senator referred to our engagement with disability groups. A new national physical activity plan is being developed and is due later this year. It will include disability and mobility. The Department of Health and the Department of sport will have wider consultation on that plan. On physical activity pathways, I provided extra funding of €105,000 to help people living with chronic disease. That is further funding in that space.

Today, Ash Wednesday, is national no smoking day. I praise the 19,000 people who engaged with the HSE last year on its quit smoking programme. It was a great success and the uptake of the programme has been very positive. Medicines such as nicotine replacement therapy are now available for free. It is important that we get that message out to people.

They have significantly helped people to quit smoking. We know that, unfortunately, 100 people every week are admitted to hospital and 1,000 people per week pass away because of smoking-related harm. We have made really good strides but today is a good day to remind people about the services available across the country. It is great to see the number of people engaging with the HSE helpline. Again, I secured €1.82 million in the budget to continue the roll-out of the quit smoking programme.