Catherine Noone (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Minister of State, Deputy McGrath, has seen the debate. I know it is an issue close to his heart, pardon the pun. In light of international studies that have found that smokers who use e-cigarettes tend to smoke less and have increased attempts to quit, what research is being conducted here to test the effectiveness of e-cigarettes in helping Irish smokers quit the habit?

The Minister of State knows that the Healthy Ireland framework is aiming for a tobacco-free Ireland by 2025. That means achieving a smoking rate of less than 5%. The current smoking rate in Ireland is 22%. The HSE welcomes any aid to quitting smoking but due to the lack of conclusive evidence of the long-term effects, it has not recommended e-cigarettes as an aid. I am not an expert in this area. However, besides the fact that I think they look a bit ridiculous, they do seem to be effective. We should have some policy on them.

E-cigarettes in the UK have been endorsed as a quitting tool. There has been a drop in smoking rates there of 4.8% since 2012. Public Health England has stated that e-cigarettes are 95% less harmful than traditional smoking. That is obviously significant. In the UK, one person switches to e-cigarettes every three minutes. The UK now has the second lowest smoking rate in Europe. Public Health England stated that the use of e-cigarettes is associated with increased quitting success rates and has hastened the decline in smoking.

In Ireland in 2017, the Health Information and Quality Authority, HIQA, reported that e-cigarettes are twice as popular and twice as effective at helping people to quit compared with patches, gum and other devices. Of the people who quit smoking last year, 37% used e-cigarettes according to Healthy Ireland. Smoking rates in Ireland have been slow to decrease. It was 23% in 2015 and 2016, and 22% in 2017. I appreciate that wanting to quit smoking is a personal issue for people. However, if we, as a Government, are seeking to attain a tobacco free Ireland, it appears that our nearest neighbour is having a lot of success in this area, notwithstanding the research that needs to be carried out. I would be interested in us at least having a policy on it.