Denise Mitchell (Dublin Bay North, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to speak on the Bill. It is good to see the Government taking action on this issue. It will have the support of me and my party colleagues. The aggressive marketing of vaping products will finally be dealt with by the Bill. It will bring it in line with the standards that must be met by the wider tobacco industry. The fact that it has not been illegal until now to sell vaping products to children was a large gap in the legislation and thankfully it is finally being rectified.

The introduction of an advertising ban on public transport and outside schools would be a very important measure. People sometimes think that advertisements do not impact on the decisions of teenagers and that they do not pay any attention to advertisements. Stakeholders in this area would tell us how deeply damaging these advertisements can be. Children in their early teens are using these highly addictive products. We do not know what long-term damage vaping does to an adult's body, never mind what it does to the bodies of young teenagers and children who are still developing.

We have all seen young people and teenagers vaping. The range of favours and colours of these products are understandably attractive to young people. A bugbear of mine is that we also see disposable vapes being discarded all over streets. Vaping has become mainstream and cool in the same way cigarettes did before people knew how bad they were for our health. I am glad the Bill will address some of the gaps that exist.

That said, there are some issues outstanding which we hope will be addressed on Committee Stage. There is no mechanism in the Bill to allow for a time-bound review of how it operates. We need something to ensure these laws are working as well as we intend them to do. It is something that has worked well in other legislation and allows unintended consequences to be highlighted and addressed. This is a very important Bill. I hope the Minister will move to enact it as soon as possible.

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