Paul Gogarty (Dublin Mid West, Independent)

Unfortunately, some of my colleagues could not make it.

I wish to talk at the outset about protecting our young people. It is not just about vapes, e-cigarettes and nicotine products; it is also about alcohol, nitrous oxide canisters and unfiltered assess to social media. Our young people are being assaulted from all sides like never before. We need to protect them. We have legislative tools to make that a reality. Other people have spoken in various ways with different styles of contribution, but the facts that my colleagues have outlined are all fairly similar. There is less research on vapes because they have been around for a shorter period of time. With the long-term implications, there are suggestions relating to cancer. However, there are clearer reports on the immediate to short-term implications.

The key message coming out from some of my colleagues, as well as myself, is that in the short term we have to ban the use of flavours other than tobacco in all vaping products. Deputies have mentioned the sweet smell and I repeat this point. The Minister of State is probably sick of hearing the repetitive contributions about the multicoloured vapes, the different sweet smells and the fact a lot of sweet shops have been thrown in. The Minister of State is aware of it, but we are all reiterating it because it is staring us in the face as legislators and we need to do something about it. If a vape tastes like tobacco, it is going to be much less attractive to young people. It is as simple as that. As Deputy Ó Cearúil referenced, it is why young people were attracted to menthol cigarettes back in the day.

Disposable vapes are the drug of choice among young people. What we can do as legislators is to get rid of disposable vapes, full stop. As a side issue, during a previous contribution about cigarette butt tossers I mentioned that 50% of all litter comes from cigarette butts that contain plastic and do not biodegrade. If we are looking at legislation on banning disposable vapes, we should legislate to ban plastic filters in cigarettes so that cigarettes can biodegrade. This activity is creating huge amounts of environmental waste, but we are talking more about the health impacts here. Research from the Health Research Board has revealed that adolescents who use e-cigarettes are three to five times more likely to start smoking tobacco compared to those who have never used e-cigarettes. As others have mentioned, 8% of the population use e-cigarettes daily or occasionally. Among young people, however, 17% of 15- to 24-year-olds use them daily or occasionally. If young people who vape are about three times more likely to start smoking, vaping is part of the problem. As others have mentioned, it is not the solution to give up smoking. It is actually a gateway to smoking.

A health research report from 2024 pooled data analysis from different surveys and showed a strong link between vaping and the use not only of cigarettes, but also other substances like marijuana and alcohol. We have all these effects. I mentioned the long-term indicators towards carcinogenic impacts, but asthma is one issue that jumps straight out. We also have the issues of burns, blast injuries, poisonings, lung injury and potentially cancer.

I will go backwards for a second. At the outset of my contribution I mentioned the various things we need to examine in order to protect our young people. I want to reiterate the point about nitrous oxide canisters. It is not a part of this debate but I want to keep throwing this issue out there as it is something that has caused damage as well.

What is happening internationally? There are countries that have a record of having zero tolerance on things such as litter, smoking and vaping. Singapore comes to mind, in particular, where it has brought in a total import and sales ban. However, because we are in the European Union that may be more complicated. To take an EU member state, Belgium has banned disposable electronic cigarettes. That is the first step, as well as banning flavours. Australia tried to have a total ban but saw it led to a black market situation so that is something to be aware of as well. We do not want dangerous products being sold to our young people through the back door, so the products have to be regulated and made accessible to adults - whether we like it or not - but made virtually impossible for young people to access so that sub-market is not created. Germany is considering a ban on flavoured vapes and restrictions on how and where the refillable vapes are sold so I would like there to be a specific tobacco-nicotine-vape shop and get those products out of all convenience and retail stores over a period of time. That might be a way of doing this as well as possibly having a licensing fee for retailers such as the likes of New Zealand is doing.

I welcome that HHC and some other drugs were classed as illegal earlier this year. Credit where credit is due. As some of my colleagues have mentioned, there is an issue with enforcement and some of these products still appear to be being sold to young people and adults, so enforcement is needed.

I also want to reference the pouches which, although it is a pure nicotine issue and their impact might not be to the same extent, they are still dangerous products for young people. They have knock-on effects and even nicotine itself as a pure drug has impacts on the cardiovascular system so we would not be encouraging young people to start to put it between their mouth and gums either.

I welcome the fact that this debate was facilitated. I reiterate, like everyone else, that first we need to get rid of the multicoloured and multi-smelling products and make them smell like tobacco. We have to get rid of the disposable vapes. Equally, it is not good enough just to have statements on vaping. We need to have legislation and I hope that happens within the next three months or so.

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