Ruairi Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

We are here to welcome 20 years of the smoking ban. I recall some of the conversation at the time in the public domain. It was like the roof was going to fall in and that it was going to be impossible. I absolutely agree with Deputy Gould when he says that it was a brave move. I congratulate people on the work that has been done. We have seen that it has been transformative.

I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Colm Burke, to his new position. I imagine we will have a number of interactions. He is talking about everything from Healthy Ireland through to dealing with the drug addiction crisis that we have at the minute. I wish him the best of luck but we are all starting from a difficult place on that and the services that are required.

I would much prefer that the business we were dealing with included some of the issues that Deputy Gould spoke about earlier with regard to the Gambling Regulation Bill and all the other issues and many crises that are facing us at the minute. I will be quite honest that I would have much preferred that, in the last changing of the guard, we would have actually gone to the people and to a general election, but so be it. We are where we are.

With regard to the smoking ban, a brave step was taken. We have all seen the benefits, even when those benefits were initially the fact that you came home and your jacket and clothes from the disco were not stinking and you did not always have cigarette burns on your jacket. If I remember correctly, we suddenly discovered that some of the discos and so on needed to have a serious clean-out afterwards because the smoke, to a degree, covered an awful lot of other sins. That is for another time. It was beneficial, even on a personal basis, that people were suddenly not inhaling a significant amount of smoke when they were out, which goes without saying for those who were in workplaces, besides for someone who, as the saying used to go, smoked like a trooper.

The problem is that tobacco firms have also seen a changing set of circumstances. We all initially welcomed vaping. We all know multiple people who used vaping as a harm reduction means. We have all seen those people who were able to wean themselves off cigarettes, who had tried many times before and failed. This was the means by which they did it. That was long before we saw the bubblegum-flavoured vapes and so on. We know that we have to go much further. When talking about kids, including many young kids, it is incredibly worrying. It is not just about vapes but about all the dangers from a health point of view.

Alongside dealing with the issue of vapes, we have to deal with the issue of processed food and sugary drinks. We have seen certain moves that were made on the sugar tax. We know that there is never one silver bullet and that companies will be able to make determinations to find ways round those sorts of circumstances. We need an all-of-government response. That cannot just be about forcing poor people into circumstances. We all know that at times, unfortunately, some of the cheapest foods are the worst types. We know there are issues with advertising and so on. We know the issues with Ireland and alcohol. That goes without saying. We need to look at the evidence relating to the night-time economy.

We need public health assessments before we make any determinations. Sometimes we all think intuitively that if everyone is not coming home from a disco at the one time it would be fine and we would have less violence. What would I have done in that set of circumstances? I am sure we all know people, and I am sure that at one stage of my life I probably was one of them, who would have just stayed out and continued drinking. There would have been no real advantage. If everybody does this, I would assume that really bad things would happen at the end of the night.

I am very glad that Deputy Gould spoke about gambling and the big issue it is. I went to an event at the end of last year organised by the Thirsk Counselling service. Oisín McConville addressed the event. He had 35 minutes to speak about himself, which is his favourite subject. It was brilliant, and Thirsk Counselling now offers a gambling service. This is something we have to look at with regard to drug addiction, the family addiction support network and the sustainability of the services. It is a far longer conversation with regard to the issues that face our communities at this point in time.

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