Averil Power (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I also welcome the improvement in the literacy statistics. It is great that the additional investment in education by the previous Government, particularly in disadvantaged areas under the DEIS scheme, is paying off. It is important to acknowledge that and for the Government to keep its hands off DEIS and reinstate the money it has taken from the school completion programme and other programmes that is necessary to give children from disadvantaged areas the best start in our education system.

I move an amendment to the Order of Business: "That No. 11 be taken before No. 1 today". No. 11 is the Public Health (Regulation of Electronic Cigarettes and Protection of Children) Bill 2015. I have proposed the Bill and it has been seconded by Senators Crown and Daly. E-cigarettes are not regulated in the State. They are not age restricted and, therefore, they can be bought by children. They do not carry health warnings and, therefore, users are often unaware of the risks. They can be used in workplaces such as bars and restaurants because they are not subject to existing legislation relating to cigarettes. While e-cigarettes are not as harmful as tobacco, they can still cause serious damage to a user's health.As the World Health Organisation has pointed out, they still contain harmful levels of nicotine.

There is huge variation in the quality of the product and there are hundreds of different types of e-cigarettes. Some of them are produced to a relatively high quality by pharmaceutical companies but others are produced as cheaply as possible in backstreet operations in China. Some of the e-cigarettes that have been tested have been found to be more dangerous than tobacco and to contain higher levels of toxins. Variability of quality is a huge issue and users themselves need to be aware of it. E-cigarettes also exude toxins into the air which are harmful to bystanders, including children, and there are no regulations on packaging, as a result of which children have suffered serious poisoning after drinking liquid nicotine.