Ulick Burke (Fine Gael)

It is proposed to introduce a register of tobacco retailers. Will the Minister consider giving guidelines to the health boards regarding the practice established by them over many years of using minors to attempt to purchase tobacco products in shops in order to find out how effective is the legislation? I spoke on this on Second Stage. As a member of a health board, I have objected strenuously over the years to this practice. We see headlines on local papers stating that a person was fined for selling tobacco products to minors. However, the method by which they were found out was through trapping them by sending a health board official accompanied by a young person into the shop to establish whether the young person could purchase particular products. It is time to operate the legislation in some way other than by using minors because it is an abuse. The Minister should indicate to the health boards, agencies and statutory bodies which have responsibility for implementing the legislation that they should desist from using minors in this way.