Mark Ward (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

We welcome this legislation to bring the regulation of e-cigarette and vaping in line with the regulation of tobacco products and to update some elements of tobacco products regulations to ensure consistency and standards. As has been said, we will make a number of amendments. I have a couple of points and questions. I would appreciate it if the Minister could address some of these in her closing remarks. At the moment, a person need only walk outside most secondary schools to see one of these vape shops in the vicinity. These shops are not placed there by accident. For example, in Clondalkin village, one of these shops is right outside one of the schools. Will legislation stop vape shops from opening up outside schools? Is 200 m enough distance from schools to stop this practice happening? Because of the gaps in the law, it is not illegal to sell these products to children. The marketing of e-cigarettes and vapes is not regulated in the same way traditional tobacco products are. Therefore, the Bill would also ban advertising these products on public transport or near schools. That is welcome but will this Bill and this legislation stop vape shops from opening outside schools? They are going to have big advertisements outside such as "vapes sold here" or whatever it might be. Some of them are in really flashy lights. They are enticing for young people walking by. Will this legislation stop that from happening?

Advertising and marketing flavouring has been targeted towards children to encourage young people to take up vaping. I did a quick search online this morning which told me that I could buy vapes in the following flavours: strawberry ice cream, cotton candy, cherry cola, bubble gum and blue raspberry as well as many others. These flavours deliberately target children. There is no other way around this. Can the loophole in the legislation be closed to stop this deliberate practice of targeting children in order that it can be stopped?

Packaging was mentioned. The packaging is multicoloured and attractive. It looks like something a child could pick up in any pound shop as a toy. Can packaging be looked at? Can warnings be placed on packaging similar to tobacco products?

The Bill creates a new licensing and enforcement system through the environmental health service of the HSE which will ensure we can stop the sale of these products to children by using strict penalties and inspections. I have a question on that. Are there any penalties for an adult who would go into a shop to buy this to give to a child? We spoke about vape shops but these e-cigarettes and vapes can be bought in many other shops. Will the legislation extend to newsagents and other shops that are close to schools?

Another quick search online this morning brought me to an online vape retailer that boasts about same-day delivery in Dublin, seven days a week. Amazon cannot even boast of that. Will this legislation extend to online sales?

One of the gaps in the legislation about which I am extremely concerned is that it fails to regulate the nicotine content of vaping products. There are currently different ranges of nicotine content in vapes. Is there any provision in this legislation to put an upper level on nicotine content or to stop vapes being advertised, for example, as having 3 mg of nicotine content when they actually have 18 mg of nicotine content? Does it have to say? If if states 3 mg of nicotine content, is there a way of testing that to see exactly what is in it?

I worked in addiction services. I talked to the Minister about harm reduction. I genuinely believe harm reduction is the way to go in many addiction issues, but has any research been done on vapes? Many adults see vapes as a harm-reduction measure that is less harmful than smoking. Has any research been done that can back this up?

I also ask for a review of the regulations when they come in. Sinn Féin will ask for a statutory review of the legislation to be included in the Bill. We need to make sure the system is working as intended.

While legislation is important legislation, by itself it is not enough. We need to ensure proper information is fully available, especially for people who are considering vaping to stop smoking. That is why I asked about the research.

Is vaping, in fact, a harm reduction measure or are there other harms, including hidden harms, in using e-cigarettes? We should be doing everything possible to help adults make informed choices and ensure children do not have easy and legal access to addictive substances.

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