Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I want to take the opportunity to warmly welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Colm Burke, to the Department. I am delighted for two reasons. First, he is going to bring huge energy, knowledge and passion about healthcare to the role. Second, he asked some of the most difficult questions at the health committee, and now he will have to answer those questions rather than asking them. I think that is definitely a plus. On a serious note, I am really delighted that the Minister of State, Deputy Burke, is going to be joining the team in healthcare. He is going to bring a huge amount to it.

I apologise to colleagues for not being here for more of the debate. I have just come from the new build that, along with the Ronald McDonald House charity, we are putting in place at the children's hospital. We are going from 20 family rooms to 52. It is an investment of nearly €30 million, and the State is putting in two thirds of the money. I want to take the opportunity in the Dáil to acknowledge the extraordinary work of all the staff in the current Ronald McDonald House in Crumlin and the volunteers. I met with one of the children today, Darragh, who was in there for many months. They do incredible work. It is great to see this new facility coming out of the ground now.

Of course, we are here today to talk about the 20th anniversary of the workplace smoking ban, and what more we need to do into the future. I think we are all proud of it. It is seen as one of the most progressive and impactful public health measures that has been taken in Ireland and around the world. Ireland not only brought it in - the Tánaiste, Deputy Micheál Martin, obviously brought it in when he was health Minister - but it gave Ireland a great reputation in public health, and great confidence that we can lead the world in these areas. There are good things that have happened. There is more that needs to be done as well with regard to controls on smoking and reducing the number of people who are smoking, particularly younger people, and then on vaping as well. I want to talk briefly to that.

On the policies we have, as Deputy Berry said, there is push and pull. A lot of what we are trying to do is to support people in addiction to stop smoking. Part of that is around making certain forms of assistance affordable because they can come at a financial burden. For example, we have availed of a change in the EU VAT rules. After engagement between the Minister, Deputy Donohoe, and me, VAT was reduced on all nicotine replacement therapies in the budget for last year. The Minister, Deputy Michael McGrath, was obviously very involved as well. That is one thing that is making a difference. It is a modest change but it is an important change.

The State now funds, through the HSE, free nicotine replacement therapy through the QUIT service, and we have secured over €1 million for that this year as well. This is extra money, bringing the total funding to nearly €2 million. We have invested very significantly in the healthy communities programme, and there are "stop smoking" supports around the country as well. That is all very important. Just last year, nearly 20,000 people got involved in the "stop smoking" service run by the HSE. That is really very encouraging to see, and we have fantastic people working around the community on that.

There has been a lot of talk, quite rightly of course, about vaping. Colleagues will be aware that we brought in the Public Health (Tobacco Products and Nicotine Inhaling Products) Act 2023, or the vaping Bill as we referred to it. We enacted that in December, and there was support right across the House for this. Section 28 of the Act prohibited the sale of vaping products to children, or those under the age of 18. That came in on 22 December last, which is very important, and there are checks and enforcement going on now.

I have commenced more sections of the Act in just the past few days. A prohibition on the sale of cigarettes and vapes at events for children will be coming into place in September. There will also be a prohibition on advertising vapes on public transport and at transport stops and stations, as well as restrictions on advertising in cinemas, school grounds or within 200 m of a school. There will then be a framework for test purchases of tobacco products. In other words, the public health officer will be able to enforce the law and ensure retailers are complying with the new legislation. There are more important measures in the Act that we are looking forward to commencing in the future. These include a licensing system for the retail sale of cigarettes and vapes and a prohibition on vending machines. We will be getting rid of those as well.

More measures are coming too. We have just finished up a public consultation on the next Bill. We are looking at this carefully in respect of where I want to go with it. I think there is broad support right across the House for this endeavour. We want to bring in, or I want to bring in anyway, further controls on the advertising of vapes, as well as on the flavouring and the colouring. I believe it is a deeply cynical exercise by the tobacco industry to target children with bubble gum and blueberry flavours and so forth. The packaging is also all very bright and colourful. I think we need controls on points of sale, so that when we walk into a shop or garage we are not bombarded with all these vaping products. I think we need to go further. I also want to see a ban on disposable vapes, for health reasons and for environmental reasons as well. That is what we are doing on vapes. We have taken important action and we are going to take more important action.

I believe we must also take another very decisive step in terms of smoking, particularly targeting younger teenagers, around 15, 16 and 17 years of age in particular. I am looking to bring a memo to the Government for agreement to change the law to increase the smoking age, or the age at which cigarettes can be sold to people, from 18 up to 21. Really, this is aimed not so much at the 20-year-olds but at those aged 15, 16 and 17 because they can either pass for 18 or they have a friend who can do so. The gap to 21, though, is obviously much bigger. The very clear advice I have, and the evidence shows this, is that if we can reduce the number of young teenagers smoking at that age, we will be able to quite radically reduce smoking prevalence in the country again.

It is a big move and this is an ongoing conversation we are having across government. I think it could make a big difference. The evidence shows us very clearly that there is a higher risk of those aged 18 to 21 becoming smokers, so if we can discourage people from doing it and get them through those years, we will continue to drive down the smoking age. This is something I am very much looking forward to pursuing and something I would most certainly like to see being brought in during the lifetime of this Dáil and in this calendar year. I look forward to further fruitful discussions with colleagues on exactly this aspect. Go raibh maith agaibh.

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