Micheál Carrigy (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Minister is very welcome. I speak on this Bill as an ex-smoker. Thanks be to God it has been 22 years since I quit them. It was 31 July 2002. I can still remember the date. I intend to continue that way and I sincerely hope my three sons never start. I wholeheartedly support increasing the age to 21 years. I have seen the damage this does to families. I have seen the cost it puts on people who are addicted. It is in reality an addiction not a choice, as the Minister said. All contributors so far have talked about cigarettes, but it is also nicotine-inhaling products such as vapes. It is only about three years ago I saw the effect when I visited Ballymahon Vocational School. Grace Kearney from the local Youthreach was speaking to 13- and 14-year-olds about the negative effects of vaping. She made me aware that first years, so kids as young as 12 years of age, were being given free samples of vaping products outside the school gate to get them addicted so they would then buy them in shops down the town. Fortunately, the legislation on that was brought in within the last 12 months.

I am a retailer. In my village of Ballinalee the three shops collectively had an 18-years-of-age policy ourselves before the legislation came in because we all knew the negative effects of it. Maybe I should have put in an amendment on this, but I have an issue with a lot of the vape shops that are around – and in every single town and village there are two or three of them – being disguised as sweet shops. We have the American sweet shop with its glossy front windows but it is just a draw to get children into the shop to buy or want to buy vaping products. It is about getting them addicted so shops can make higher profits. I have a beer wholesaler licence and a national lottery one, so I have all three licences. I have a policy, and it is an ingrained policy, especially from the national lottery, to think 21. That is the way we have to think when we are checking the ages of those who come in. We do not sell national lottery products to under-18s and I say the same to my staff with regard to alcohol. It is unacceptable for alcohol to be sold to anyone under the age of 18. I have regular inspections. I have probably had two in the last two to three years involving test purchases of cigarettes. My staff have enforced the policy of looking for identification at all times. Like Senator Boyhan I see a difficulty with the fact we are going to have to enforce slightly different age restrictions with alcohol and cigarettes. As a retailer I can foresee it being a difficulty for staff. As Senator Boyhan said, we should have engaged with the retailer associations on this before the legislation was brought in. My understanding, from the organisations I deal with, is there has not really been any consultation. I think there was a commitment given on Second Stage that would happen, but it has not with the retail organisation I work through as a small retailer, which is the Convenience Stores and Newsagents Association. Why has that not happened? With anything, no matter what it is, we must consult the people on the ground who are going to have to implement policy. In saying that, I fully support the Bill. This is the right way to go. The decision taken by the now Tánaiste and then Minister for Health, Micheál Martin, was a brave one and the right one. In bringing in that legislation, we were world leaders in regard to the workplace. The summer before the ban, I was at a friend's wedding in Cape Cod in the US, which was the first place in the world to implement a no-smoking rule in the workplace, bars, etc. While I was a smoker at the time, I saw the difference it made there and I knew it would work here because it would be enforced by people themselves. That is what happened when the ban was introduced here. I fully support this Bill and will vote in favour of it. However, I ask that we consult the people who will have to implement it.