Emer Higgins (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the provisions of this Bill. Ireland has proven itself to be a leader in this space. In 2004, we became the first country in the world to ban smoking in workplaces, including bars, restaurants and enclosed public spaces. If we think back to that time, Irish pubs were probably the last place in the world anyone expected to become smoke-free. Many people thought the ambition of the State, and in particular of the then Minister for Health, Deputy Micheál Martin, and senior civil servants in the Department of Health, would fail, but it did not. Almost 20 years later, public health in Ireland has reaped the benefits of this decision. We have seen many of our European and international neighbours follow our lead. We were leaders before and this is our opportunity to be leaders again. We can be leaders in public health when it comes to e-cigarettes and vapes.

I welcome the plans in this Bill to introduce a licensing system for the sale of these products, which are currently widely available. The legislation will allow us to ban the sale of vapes by and to under-18s and to restrict advertising for and promotion of them among other measures. The debate is ongoing about the value of e-cigarettes and vapes in certain contexts such as, for example, a nicotine replacement for those who are trying to quit smoking.

Many people will say that vaping helped them quit smoking, but we just do not know yet what the long-term health implications are.

We know that teenagers are taking up vaping as an activity in its own right, rather than to stop smoking. It is right that we protect our young people from the potential risks, particularly when we see a rise in the number of teenagers, and even children, who are regularly vaping. Some 9% of 12 to 17-year-olds and more than 15% of 15 and 16-year-olds are vaping. We know about the impact of nicotine when it comes to developing brains and we know about the impact it has on the respiratory systems of young people. We also now know that children who vape are five times more likely to start smoking. That is a statistic that is quite staggering because clearly, as the WHO has stated, vaping is becoming a gateway to cigarettes for young people. It is a loophole for under-18s that needs to be closed.

The fact that young people have had such easy access to this product that is making them five times more likely to become smokers for this long is a bit frightening. It threatens the good and progressive work that has been done to address smoking levels in Ireland. The irony is that we have people in their 20s and 30s who benefited from the negative attitude to smoking brought about by the introduction of the smoking ban. It is today's teenagers who are being sucked back in. Experimenting and being a bit rebellious is a natural part of adolescence but it seems like vapes and e-cigarettes are being specifically marketed towards our young people. There are different colours and flavours and it is almost like these items are being marketed as products for children, like a chocolate bar, a soft drink or an accessory. That is why I welcome the crackdown on advertising that is included in this Bill. To ban the advertising of vaping products around schools, on public transport and in cinemas is progressive. There are also greater enforcement powers for the environmental health service.

However, it is not the ads in the cinemas that are the problem and that is not where young people are spending all of their time. If we are honest, they are spending their time on social media. That is why I feel passionately that these advertising limitations need to be extended into the online space. It is not good enough anymore to say that social media is too big an area to regulate. That is a dangerous view because we know that we cannot leave it to the social media companies to regulate themselves; we have seen that in operation. That has been our downfall in so many areas. I hope that the targeting of under-18s with these products on social media can be looked at in the wider scope of the Bill at some point. I commend this Bill and congratulate the Minister of State and her team on all their work on this.

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