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

Tá áthas orm labhairt ar an mBille seo. Labhair mé ar an topic seo cheana féin agus ag an bpointe seo níl ach cúpla pointe breise le déanamh agam mar sin ní bheidh mé ag tógáil mo chuid ama go léir. All of us in the House agree that taking action to protect the lives and health of our young people is important, and that efforts to reduce the prevalence rate of smoking should be encouraged. Smoking is very harmful to health and generates hundreds of millions in health service costs each and every year. We would also agree that whatever measures we take to tackle these problems must be evidence-based and not just some form of nanny state intervention that sounds good on paper but has no meaningful impact in the real world.

Professor John Britton, director of the UK Centre for Tobacco and Alcohol Studies, has stated he believes the risk of vaping will be well under 5% compared to smoking. He goes on to say:

Those who cite the precautionary principle as justification to discourage or prohibit electronic cigarettes ignore the fact that for the great majority of users, the counterfactual is premature death from tobacco smoking. Smoking kills. So does denying smokers opportunities to quit.

At the very least we need to take these comments on board so we can produce a policy and a law that has some benefit to it apart from that of merely sounding good. I would like to see a law that is genuinely beneficial in terms of harm reduction, as do we all, but we must listen to all of the evidence if we are to achieve that goal.

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