Malcolm Byrne (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the announcement by the Minister for Health, Deputy Stephen Donnelly, that he is going to proceed with legislation that will prohibit the sale of vapes and vaping products to anybody under the age of 18. While I understand that there is a bit of a pause waiting for agreement at European level on some of the issues around plain packaging and so on, Ireland should become a lead in this space. We should be banning disposable and flavoured vapes. We do not know fully yet the damage they are causing but we know they cause significant damage. Two young students, Aimée Farrell and Leanne Mahon, won a prize at the BT Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition. They are students in FCJ Bunclody. They surveyed more than 1,300 students in County Wexford and found that 10% of students aged between 11 and 19 regularly vaped and many had never smoked before. They were taking up this habit. We have got to take very tough action. Wexford Comhairle na nÓg has been running a policy for quite a while called Not Around Us, encouraging the creation of smoke- and vape-free zones so that adults would not smoke in the presence of young people, including the young people in the Gallery here. A number of local authorities, including Wexford County Council, ban smoking or vaping in areas like public parks where young people are gathered. That is also the case on a number of university campuses.

In supporting this legislation, I also ask that consideration be given to the Leinster House campus becoming an entirely smoke- and vape-free campus. If we are to set an example that we do not want to see young people taking up smoking, we have to show leadership. I ask the Leader to raise it with the appropriate channels. I look forward to seeing this legislation and hope it will be strengthened in this House.