Paul Donnelly (Dublin West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Sinn Féin opposes the Bill, as my colleagues have said. I absolutely despise tobacco and vaping products. I have seen too many people die horrible deaths due to cancer and particularly due to tobacco-related illnesses. I wish we could shut down every one of those tobacco companies. I wish that were something we could do. Just like with illegal drugs it would drive it underground and into the hands of illegal gangs and create more pain and violence on our streets. It would be just as futile.

The primary purpose of the Bill is to raise the age of prohibition on the sale of tobacco to 21 years. The Bill also makes slight modifications to the public health Act to separate the sale of nicotine inhaling products, or vapes, from the sale of tobacco products. This means it will remain legal to sell all forms of vapes to 18-year-olds. I will come back to discuss vapes later.

There are many meaningful and far more important public health measures the Government could take to improve the health of children, young people and older people. I have mentioned previously in the Dáil that in 2014 the Irish Cancer Society produce a report on Dublin 15 in which it stated that on one side of Ongar Road and Snugborough Road people were two times more likely to die of cancer and three times more likely to die of any other illness. The reasons are poverty and disadvantage, which kill more people than all these products put together. This finding is from the Irish Cancer Society.

There were 29 convictions for selling tobacco products to people aged under 18 in the entire State. The targets set by the HSE for inspections was a mere 384 throughout the tens of thousands of outlets in the State selling tobacco products. I noticed there was not a single conviction in Dublin West, which has a population of more than 130,000 people with hundreds of outlets. I wonder whether they are all very law abiding or if there are no inspections in Dublin 15. I find that quite incredible to believe not a single person was convicted.

I looked at what happens if someone is convicted of selling illegal tobacco products. The Minister spoke about enforcement. There is a €500 fine and €600 in costs. Penalties also include being removed from the register for one day, four week or six hours, which is strange.

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