Sinéad Gibney (Dublin Rathdown, Social Democrats)

I welcome the opportunity to discuss this topic this evening, but like others I am frustrated, because it is another instance where we discuss something yet the regulatory vacuum still exists. This is our generation's version of big tobacco and it is preying on our children. Big tobacco is marketing to children on purpose and it is no secret the sale of e-cigarettes or vapes has boomed in recent years. Far from the original branding, which positioned these products as a way to quit smoking, they are now branded with bright colours, sweet flavours and stronger and stronger hits of nicotine. Why do these products come in blue raspberry, strawberry kiwi, watermelon and pineapple ice flavours? The answer is because they are marketed at the younger generations, including under-18s.

We know from young people, parents and teachers that the use of nicotine and tobacco products by children has not gone away. I know sometimes the Government recoils when I use terms like "big tobacco", similar to when I use the term "big tech", but I think it is important to do so and I feel that this is part of the problem. We know that these companies have endless piles of money that they use to lobby for their interests and subvert the common good. It is up to us to lead in standing up for that common good against these corporate interests.

A World Health Organization report from 2024 detailed how big tobacco is crassly using language of harm reduction while it gets a generation of children addicted to vaping. This, paired with the lack of enforcement of what little protection we have, means that youth vape use is higher than ever and continues to rise. Tá níos mó páistí ag úsáid galtoitíní ná riamh, but we are not resourcing the HSE to help people quit vaping. The HSE says it does not have capacity to deliver stop-vaping care and is not resourced to do so. A woman in my constituency of Dublin Rathdown contacted me recently to highlight how vaping products were being displayed and sold alongside toys like fidget spinners in a shop in her local shopping centre. Níl sé sách maith go bhfuil sé seo ag tarlú in 2025. I appreciate the proposed legislative fixes the Minister of State outlined at the start of today's discussion but we are currently operating in a regulatory vacuum, so this problem is urgent. We need regulation on the packaging of vapes, on their flavouring and on their points of sale. We need to future-proof against an industry that does not care about our children.

See this speech in context