Lynn Boylan (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire. Many of the speakers have said that the Bill has been a long time coming and that it is long overdue. I remember at the time of the EU's tobacco directive I and Sinn Féin were on the side of arguing for these vaping products to be included in the regulations at that stage because all of the anti-tobacco industry were warning that this was the tobacco industry's survival technique. They warned that this was not about getting people off cigarettes but that it was clearly designed to create a new market of new products for new addicts. They have been proven right in that. They showed us back then, nine years ago, the flavours that were coming down the road and they showed us the designs of the products that were to appeal to young people. It is disappointing that at the time, in its wisdom, the EU did not accept the evidence and regulate the nicotine replacement products and vapes. It is also interesting that they warned about the fact that the science was still out around the harms caused by these products, which we are starting to see filter down, and there are real concerns around these products and the harm they are doing to people's lungs.

Sinn Féin welcomes the Bill and the debate. We generally support this Bill but we plan to propose some amendments during Committee Stage, which I will get to. As I said, it is a long-overdue public health measure, particularly, as others have said, because vaping and the business of vaping is aggressively targeting young people. Last July, the Committee on Health completed its pre-legislative scrutiny, revealing the urgent need to modernise the regulation of tobacco and nicotine inhaling products.

Others have spoken about the trends and in 2015, just under one in four teenagers had used a vape, rising to nearly 40% by 2019. Although the number of smokers has also increased, it remains lower than that of vapers. This trend has likely continued, if not accelerated, during the pandemic years. That is due to the weakness in the existing legislation. Vaping is entrenched in youth culture, undoing the progress we have seen in reducing smoking and nicotine addiction over the past two decades.

The Bill is welcome and I will not go through the details of it as the Minister has done so. One of the glaring gaps in the existing legislation is the absence of a prohibition on selling nicotine inhaling products to children, which Part 3 of the Bill addresses by outlining related offences. This section is crucial, with several provisions aimed at protecting children from exposure to these products. Section 27 prohibits selling these products to children, while section 28 extends the prohibition to events aimed at or attended by a majority of children. We welcome these provisions. Section 29 addresses advertising, prohibiting it in or around schools, public services, transport vehicles and cinemas. These provisions collectively form a robust set of offences to prevent sales to children and counter the effects of targeted advertising. Enforcement here will be key. We are good at introducing legislation in this country but we are not so good at the enforcement of it. Through parliamentary question responses, I have learned that no enforcement case has been brought for breaches of the Public Health (Alcohol) Act 2018. It is very important that we introduce legislation and back it up with adequate enforcement.

During pre-legislative scrutiny, advocacy organisations suggested banning flavoured vaping products and regulating their packaging. It would be helpful - and others have raised this as well - if the Minister could address these issues during the Bill's progression. Specifically, insights on packaging regulation and intentions to align it with cigarette packaging standards, including the enforcement of plain packaging, would be valuable to Senators.Part 4 introduces test purchasing to ensure compliance with prohibitions on sales to children, and it allows children over 15, with parental consent, to be part of spot checks and working with an inspector. I would like the Minister to elaborate on the practical aspects of that. Will these children be paid for their services? How will he make sure that there is adequate parental or guardian consent?

These sections will undergo further scrutiny, and we plan to propose amendments on Committee Stage. One standard amendment that we believe should be included is a review process and that it would be prudent for any new licensing system be subject to a review after two years, to ensure that the system on offences against targeting children are working as intended. Particularly crucial is evaluating the Bill's effectiveness in managing online sales, given the difficulties in regulating them. Section 8 attempts to address this by defining the point of sale but its effectiveness remains uncertain. A mandatory review after two years would allow for data collection, analysis and adjustments to enhance the legislation's performance.

Information dissemination is key, and the Government must ensure accurate information about the harms and risks associated with smoking and vaping is widely available. Addressing misinformation and misperceptions is also crucial, especially concerning the nuanced differences between vaping and traditional methods. It is important that we equip adults with accurate information to make informed choices, and preventing children's easy access to addictive substances is a responsibility of the State.

While the Bill is a positive step, there is additional work to be done. Before I conclude, I echo the calls of others around disposable vapes. They are absolutely a scourge with regard to the environment. They create litter and we see them around every community. Regarding this idea of one-off items that contain batteries and lithium, it just blows the mind that it is legally allowed to happen. We are trying to do away with single-use plastics and items, and here we have a situation where we have single-use items that actually have batteries and precious, finite resources included in them, and they are littering our streets. The blue box, and the current public advertising campaigns trying to encourage people to dispose of them correctly, is putting a sticking plaster on something that is a real environmental issue. I would like to hear the Minister's response on what the Government's view is around the banning of single-use vapes in the future.