Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent)
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274. To ask the Minister for Health his views on the fact that many retail staff are aged between 18 and 20 years and may have to refuse to sell cigarettes to persons older than them, due to his planned nicotine inhaling products Bill; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [37096/24]

Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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My Public Health (Tobacco) (Amendment) Bill will increase the minimum legal age of sale of tobacco products to 21. It is designed to decrease our 18% smoking rate in adults and particularly to impact on those under 18 who are less likely to have friends aged 21 or over who might purchase cigarettes for them. This is an urgent and necessary intervention as our 2022 data shows us that 1 in 20 of our children aged 10-17 are current smokers.

Combustible tobacco products continue to cause a vast range of catastrophic illnesses in our country and to kill two out of three smokers. My aim with this Bill is to help bring our smoking rate to less than 5% of our adult population and to zero for our children.

Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent)
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275. To ask the Minister for Health his views on the findings of his own Department's report on the recent Public Health (Tobacco) (Amendment) Bill 2024, where 65.3% of respondents said they were opposed to the increase of the minimum age for tobacco sales; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [37098/24]

Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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Each year tobacco products kill 4,500 people here and cause an enormous range of illnesses including, but not limited to; at least 16 types of cancer; multiple respiratory diseases including COPD which leads to airflow obstruction that is irreversible; cardiovascular diseases including aneurysms, peripheral arterial disease which can lead to gangrene and stroke; diabetes; rheumatoid arthritis and dementia.

The Irish Heart Foundation’s November 2021 poll found that 73% of all adults and 71% of those aged 18-24 supported raising the legal age to purchase tobacco in Ireland to 21. Similarly a 2022 IPSOS MRBI poll carried out on behalf of the HSE found that 71% agreed that the Government should raise the legal age of purchasing tobacco products to 21 years and older.

The responses to my own public consultation may have been influenced by proposals in other jurisdiction for lifetime bans and by views on the regulation of nicotine inhaling products. I am also aware that there was some evidence of coordinated campaigns around my consultation.

Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent)
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276. To ask the Minister for Health the reason he has chosen to increase the minimum age for the purchase of tobacco, rather than enforce existing age regulations via more test purchasing checks; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [37099/24]

Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to raise the minimum legal age of sale of tobacco products to 21 in order to reduce smoking prevalence and ultimately reduce the disease, disability and death and economic costs that it brings.

Analysis of the 2007 increase in the legal age of sale from 16 to 18 here found reduced smoking prevalence and a reduction in the likelihood of ever having tried a cigarette among 14- and 15-year-olds. Similarly, the UK increase to 18 in the same year was found, in England, to be associated with a significant reduction in regular smoking among 11–15-year-olds and an increase in the percentage who stated that they found it difficult to buy cigarettes.

Analysis from the U.S. Institute of Medicine on raising the national minimum legal age of sale of tobacco products to 21 found that:

• The largest proportionate reduction in tobacco initiation will likely occur among adolescents aged 15 to 17 years old. This will be due to this age group being unlikely to have members of their peer network over the minimum legal age who would be a source of cigarettes.
• Based on two models (SimSmoke and the Cancer Intervention and Surveillance Modelling Network) the expected reductions in initiation will, in several decades, lead to a 12% absolute reduction in smoking prevalence.