Public Health (Tobacco Products and Nicotine Inhaling Products) (Amendment) Bill 2026: Second Stage
Dail Éireann — 2026-04-22
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Jennifer Murnane O'Connor (FF), Carlow-Kilkenny

I thank everyone who spoke today in the Chamber. We can see the passion on this and the urgency of the Bill. A lot of issues were raised. I only have ten minutes.
The issue of flavours was the big thing. As for why we are banning all flavours except tobacco, this is what is most likely to reduce the appeal to our younger people. Today is about children and young people. In balancing this protection of young people with the help for adults who smoke, which came up today, we have found that vaping is not being substituted for smoking at a population level in adults.
Dual use of tobacco and e-cigarettes is no longer associated with an intention to quit smoking among adults and one in six adults who vape have never smoked. They have never smoked. There is no evidence that e-cigarette flavours increase the likelihood of quitting tobacco.
If I do not get through a lot of the questions, I will definitely come back with an answer for, or meet with, Deputies. I know they are saying we are forgetting about people who are smoking but we are continually increasing investment in State support to stop smoking, which includes free stop smoking medicine, such as nicotine replacement therapy, NRT, for anyone who wants to use them, more than doubling the number of clinics and expanding the We Can Quit peer-led programme. The HSE has now also recruited 48 new stop smoking advisers. We are trying to be very proactive in what we do.
Another big issue that came up was pouches. Under the Bill, retailers cannot sell pouches to anyone under 18. The pouches will also be behind the shutters which can be pulled down, which is what we want to do. We want to make sure the vapes cannot be seen. The pouches will be part of that. Toothpicks were brought up by a colleague along with snuffs. Anything with nicotine is included in this Bill. That is part of a really good initiative for anything new. We all know it is changing all of the time. From toothpicks to snuffs to pouches, it is constantly changing. In this Bill, that is what we are doing. Anything to do with nicotine is in this Bill.
I cannot highlight this enough to anyone. If people are selling to anyone under 18, they are breaking the law. They cannot sell vapes to anyone under 18. I cannot say this enough. It is so important not to be selling them. I want to compliment the team accompanying me who have worked so hard. I know from speaking to schools and parents I have been talking to myself, this is a priority for them. They see this with kids in schools where they see them vaping. One TD brought up a story about someone who was going to a debs and they wanted to get a vape to match their dress. This has to stop. We have to make sure we are protecting our children and the future for them.
I know other countries were talked about but the most relevant evidence for Ireland comes from the Netherlands. I was in the Netherlands recently and it put a ban on all flavours, except tobacco, which led to an overall decrease in both the vaping and the smoking and, seemingly, it is working really well.
The other initiative I want to talk about is the resources. Enforcement of tobacco and nicotine inhaling products legislation was highlighted as a priority. In 2026, as part of the HSE's national service plan, 30 additional whole-time equivalents have been allocated to the national environmental health service recruitment of these posts. They are expected in mid-2026. Enforcement came up a lot in the debate. It is important that we are able to enforce this as best we can within our health and well-being unit. We represent the health and well-being side. I am sure all Deputies are aware of the new licence fee coming out. This new licence fee will launch in the first weekend in August, I think. Anyone selling cigarettes or vapes will pay a licence fee. That means the HSE will have a list of who has licences, who does not and it will be easier for us to monitor this as well. That is another issue we really need to address.
Another issue that was raised was the vaping prevention campaign. An allocation of €300,000 was provided in budget 2025 to develop and run a youth vaping prevention media campaign, which was really successful. We spoke to all of the different groups. We made sure we went to schools. We spoke to parents. We had loads of media coverage on it, which was important in making sure we were able to get that information out there. This year, another €200,000 was allocated to this budget. The campaign provides evidence-based messaging to young people and information and supports to parents and guardians concerned about vaping.
The first phase was in 2025 and the second phase of the campaign is aimed at children and young people. It was launched in March and it was great. I launched it. For this campaign, we had influencers and content creators at the launch to reach young people through social media. We felt this time it was really important. We needed to target our young people and for us to do that, we used the influencers. That was a really positive move. Social media is a part of our young people's lives now. Social media is out there and we know that. That is why we worked really hard on that. As part of the campaign, a letter was sent to schools encouraging teachers and parents to learn more about vaping and to download the resources from the HSE. Since then, over 8,000 leaflets have been sent out. We also made leaflets explaining what we were doing about vaping and nicotine. That was really positive.
It is hoped that this campaign will also contribute to the continued decline in tobacco use among our young people, given the association between vaping and subsequent smoking in adolescents. I believe every Member wants this Bill to go through as quickly as possible. This Bill is about our young people but it is about when you are on a main street, for example, and you go into a shop, you see all of those colours, flavours and packaging, we are saying we are here to support you and work with you. Flavours are a concern but the unflavoured ones, other than tobacco, have worked in the Netherlands and it has legislated for this. It has really been successful.
Ireland is really leading the way in this, too. We work extremely hard with our EU counterparts, which is important. That is an issue we are addressing for the European Presidency and to have a workshop or work with them on legislation to see what we can do. I do not know if that will happen. The Minister has also been very positive on this. Ireland is leading the way on this. I know we need to do more. I know there will be amendments. I have listened to the concerns about looking at other flavours. This is about our young people and we feel tobacco and non-flavoured is the way to go. This is about saying, "Do not vape", and asking people not to vape. Vaping has been targeted so much at our young people and it has been a huge concern.
I wrote down everyone's questions. I will get back to Members but if they want to email myself or the Department with any particular questions they have, we would be more than willing to answer them. I thank all of the Deputies. I am hoping to get this Bill through as soon as possible. We work with the EU and provisions are going through the EU as well so we are waiting on that. On disposable vapes, we are waiting for word on that in June. With this particular Bill, it should only take three months so we are hoping to have that back to us by July. The urgency of this Bill is today's. We want to get this Bill through the House as soon as possible. I believe everybody here wants the same and that this Bill is needed. I cannot say this enough; all of us working together will get the Bill through as soon as possible. This is about our young people and their future.

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Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:51+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-04-22