Carol Nolan (Laois-Offaly, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome and support the Bill which aims to prohibit the sale of nicotine-inhaling products to anyone under the age of 18 years and to prohibit the self-service sale of tobacco products and nicotine-inhaling products such as those for vaping.

Purely in the interests of formulating a harm reduction policy that actually works, I point theMinister of State to the evidence presented by Respect Vapers, a grassroots coalition representing vapers in Ireland. This organisation points out that vaping is not smoking; it is the inhaling of a vapour created by an electronic device, an e-cigarette, delivering a tobacco-free reduced level of nicotine. Mr. Joe Dunne, the spokesperson and co-founder of Respect Vapers, claimed that every year, vaping helps thousands of Irish people successfully to quit smoking.

The Department of Health's own statistics show that 41% of successful quit smoking attempts were down to vaping. That is far more than those using gums, sprays, patches or other aids. As I understand it, in the UK, the cross-party House of Commons Science, Innovation and Technology Committee stated that "E-cigarettes present an opportunity to significantly accelerate already declining smoking rates, and thereby tackle one of the largest causes of death in the UK..."

Research published in the New England Journal of Medicinereported that vaping is twice as effective as nicotine replacement products in helping smokers quit. The UK's largest cancer charity, Cancer Research UK, has stated that e-cigarettes represent a wide-ranging and low-cost opportunity to reduce smoking, especially in deprived groups.

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