Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I understand the intent of this, and I agree with the intent but I am concerned about the timescale involved in this. I do not think we have 24 months. The whole issue of vaping among young people has really escalated in the last year or two, and particularly in the last six months. This issue is now coming up at residents' association and community meetings. I am sure everybody is hearing that. It is coming up, first of all, from an environmental perspective. We know that where opinion polling has been done on this, there is huge concern about the environmental impacts of the waste material from disposable vapes being strewn all around streets, parks, green spaces and so on. There is a real difficulty with the disposal of those products because they contain plastic, metal and batteries. There is a very significant environmental impact, and that is one aspect of it.

The other aspect of it, which is of course more important, is that we know vaping is now a gateway to smoking for young people. I was looking at the figures recently with regard to smoking rates for young adults, and they remain steady. They are not reducing at all. Vaping started off as a means of helping people to kick the habit of smoking, and it has become something very different. I do not think we have 24 months to wait and I think we need to act on this much quicker than that. I will speak to my own amendment in a few moments.

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