Carol Nolan (Laois-Offaly, Independent)
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1824. To ask the Minister for Health if he will support the allocation of more funding towards targeted QUIT campaigns and support initiatives towards populations most likely to smoke; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [38781/23]

Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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Funding for cessation services provided by the HSE has increased from €11.8 million in 2017 to €15.7 million in 2022. There was an investment of €2 million in the Quit Campaign in 2022. In 2022, 49 We Can Quit courses were run, 35 of which were rolled out through Sláintecare Healthy Communities ensuring local access in areas where health and wellbeing risk factors are particularly concentrated.

In February 2023, the HSE announced the rollout of free stop smoking medication such as nicotine replacement therapy for anyone who engages with their smoking cessation services. The combination of behavioural support such as that provided by the HSE QUIT programme, and pharmacological support has been found to be the most effective way of enabling people to stop smoking.

The National Stop Smoking Clinical Guidelines (Guideline No. 28) were published in 2022. These guidelines define best practice and provide a special focus on women who are pregnant and users of secondary mental health services.

Other cessation measures have been implemented in addition to those available from the HSE in recent times. As part of Budget 2023, Government removed VAT on all nicotine replacement therapies thus reducing the cost of these products to people who wish to stop smoking. I have also recently agreed that nicotine replacement therapies should be included in the Drug Payment Scheme and to remove the two week limit that applied to first prescriptions of these therapies.

I continue to examine all possible options to expand the supports available to those who wish to quit smoking.

Carol Nolan (Laois-Offaly, Independent)
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1825. To ask the Minister for Health the steps he is taking to develop education and awareness campaigns on the dangers associated with e-cigarette use; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [38782/23]

Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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Communicating the harms of e-cigarettes requires a multi-faceted approach depending on the cohort of the population. This is already being implemented in a number of ways:

• The HSE and the Department of Education have developed SPHE modules on tobacco and e-cigarette use for Year 1 and Year 2 students.
• Ireland’s first National Stop Smoking Clinical Guideline was published in January 2022 and is being implemented across the Health Service. The Guideline includes discussion points for health professionals whose patients are using or wish to use e-cigarettes to quit smoking.
• The HSE Tobacco Free Ireland Programme for 2022-2025 includes developing an awareness training programme for youth workers on nicotine addiction, prevention of e-cigarette initiation and initiation of smoking
• In May 2023, in coordination with the Department of Education, the HSE issued a letter to all school principals for sharing with parents, guardians and staff on the risk of vaping to the health of young people and children. The letter outlined the health harms associated with vaping and provided information on supports available to protect children from those harms which can be found here: www.hse.ie/eng/about/who/tobaccocontrol/resources/e-cigarette-resources.html

I hope this is of assistance to you.

Carol Nolan (Laois-Offaly, Independent)
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1826. To ask the Minister for Health to provide an update on the funding and development of a National Skin Cancer Prevention Plan; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [38783/23]

Hildegarde Naughton (Galway West, Fine Gael)
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The first National Skin Cancer Prevention Plan 2019-2022, was developed by the Department (Health and Wellbeing and Cancer Policy Units), in collaboration with the National Cancer Control Programme (NCCP) other and key stakeholders.

The focus of the Plan was on primary prevention; it was launched on 27th May 2019. A multi-stakeholder implementation group was formed after the launch, to oversee and monitor the implementation of the plan.

The next phase of the Plan, from 2023-2026, was launched in March 2023.

Action 1.4 of the National Skin Cancer Prevention Plan 2023-2026 is to "Develop and deliver an annual SunSmart communications plan to raise awareness of skin cancer prevention behaviours". This follows on from a similar action in the first Skin Cancer Prevention Plan.

The SunSmart campaign has run in 2021, 2022 and is currently running for 2023. This campaign is rolled out across social media, radio and digital audio. Healthy Ireland has co-funded this campaign with the HSE every year, and has contributed €60,000 in support for the campaign in 2023.

As the HSE is leading on implementation of the National Skin Cancer Prevention Plan 2023-2026, this is a service matter and I have asked the Health Service Executive to respond to the Deputy directly, as soon as possible.