Neale Richmond (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Senator Lombard for raising this very pressing and timely issue. I have been provided with a fairly detailed response from the Department of Education which I may not get through in four minutes but a copy will be furnished to the Senator.

The Department of Education works together with the Department of Health and other agencies to support students in the area of health. The aim of this work is to equip students with the appropriate skills and knowledge to enable them to make the right choices for healthy lifestyles throughout their lives. Schools have a role to play in supporting their students to develop these key skills and gain the knowledge to enable them to make informed choices when faced with a range of difficult issues. This is mainly done through the social, personal and health education, SPHE, programme.

Work to develop a draft updated specification for well-being, including SPHE, at primary level, is being undertaken by the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment, NCCA. This work follows on from the publication of the primary curriculum framework in March 2023, which set out proposals for the redevelopment of the primary curriculum. It is intended that public consultation on a draft specification will happen this year, with the intention of introduction in schools in 2025. This is a key opportunity for people to feed their opinions in and I would encourage Senator Lombard and his friends from Dunmway, his colleagues and the wonderful students to do so.

The importance of making healthy choices is one that is reflected in curricular developments beyond primary, in particular the new junior cycle SPHE specification which was published in May 2023 and introduced for first years in all schools from last September. As with all curriculum developments, consultation was undertaken on the draft junior cycle specification in 2022. In that consultation, both teachers and students identified that vaping is a growing and serious problem among teenagers and including this topic in the specification was seen as very important.

On vaping specifically, the learning outcomes in the junior cycle specification include that students should be able to investigate how unhealthy products, including vapes, are marketed and advertised, the consequences of using addictive substances, whether now or in the long-term, and the skills and strategies to help them make informed choices to support their health and well-being.

Work is also ongoing to update the SPHE specification for senior cycle and a draft specification was published for consultation in July, with the consultation running until 3 November last. That specification is currently being finalised, with the aim of starting introduction in schools from September 2024.

As I have said, the Department of Education works closely with the Department of Health and the HSE regarding healthy behaviours. Advice from the HSE in relation to vaping in schools was published and issued to school principals by the Department at the end of May 2023. Senators may also be aware that the Public Health (Tobacco Products and Nicotine Inhaling Products) Act came into effect on 22 December. This prohibits the sale of all nicotine-inhaling products to children and introduces a requirement for a licence for their sale. Further comprehensive regulation of nicotine inhaling products is being considered by the Department of Health, following a public consultation which concluded on 5 January last. I am also advised that the Department of Health and the HSE work closely with local authorities to develop voluntary initiatives that promote smoke-free and vape-free environments such as the Not Around Us campaign. These aim to further reduce the areas where smoking and vaping are present in daily life for young people.

As Senator Lombard will appreciate, there is an awful lot of work being done on this at the moment. There are many avenues for contributing to public consultations. There is an onus on us to increase awareness of the dangers of vaping in order to feed into a much better campus life, and a better life in general, for primary and secondary school students. There is an enormous window of opportunity here.