Public Health (Single-Use Vapes) Bill 2025: Second Stage Seanad Éireann — 2026-04-28 ============================================================ Jennifer Murnane O'Connor (FF), Carlow-Kilkenny I am delighted to be here to introduce the Public Health (Single-Use Vapes) Bill to this House. This is the first of two Bills we are bringing forward on vaping. This Bill is a short one with a single purpose, which is to ban the sale of disposable electronic cigarettes or vapes. Like many people here, I regularly hear from parents, teachers and coaches who are concerned about the impact that vapes and nicotine use are having on children’s health. The sight of discarded vapes littering our towns and villages is also a huge problem as they are harmful to the environment. Ireland has a long and proud history of tackling the public health issues caused by tobacco, dating back to our world-famous indoor smoking ban. This Bill will continue that tradition. All of us have seen the rise in vaping among our young children and young people in recent years, particularly since single-use vapes hit the market. Our Healthy Ireland survey tells us vaping among 15- to 24-year-olds went from 4% in 2021 to 20% two years later. E-cigarette use by people who had never smoked went from one in 25 in 2021 to one in six by 2024. Again, young people aged 15 to 24 are the group most likely to vape despite never having smoked. This is strong evidence that young people who vape are more likely to go on to smoke. There is a great concern that a big rise in vaping among young people could impact our efforts to drive down smoking, which continues to be the biggest prevalent cause of death, disease and disability in our country. This Bill removes the cheapest, easiest to use and most environmentally harmful vapes from the market. These products are disproportionately used by young people. We are following several EU member states such as France, Belgium and Bulgaria, which have banned these products. In June last year, a ban came into effect in Northern Ireland. This Bill will mean we have an all-island response to this issue. We are also bringing in a further law on nicotine-inhaling products and nicotine consumption products such as pouches. Last week, I introduced the Public Health (Tobacco Products and Nicotine Inhaling Products) (Amendment) Bill 2026 to the Dáil. For nicotine-inhaling products, that Bill will restrict the colours and imagery on packaging and on the devices themselves to make them less eye-catching and appealing to our children. The Bill will also ban the sale of devices resembling or functioning as other products such as toys or games. This is to ensure the Irish market does not progress into multi-use devices with features that would especially attract our young people. It will also restrict the flavours for sale and prohibit all flavour descriptors and language other than basic flavour names. This is to remove the marketing potential of the use of child-friendly flavour names. The point-of-sale display and advertising of these products in everyday supermarkets and convenience stores will also be prohibited in order that our children are not exposed to these products in their everyday lives. It will also make clear that these products are not the same as ordinary grocery goods. This Bill has created a new category of products called "nicotine consumption products". This category includes pouches and any other products for recreational consumption of nicotine other than tobacco, nicotine-inhaling products and medical products. Any new products for recreational consumption of nicotine will automatically fall under this provision. It is also important that our law is future-proof so that we are not caught off guard by the next product that comes around the corner. Future nicotine consumption products will be prohibited for sale to persons under the age of 18. In addition, the display of these products at the point of sale in our general stores will be prohibited and advertising of these products in store will be banned in all retail outlets. We can all understand how a child might be attracted to vapes, with their colourful appearance, attractive flavours and flavour names and the variety on display in our ordinary grocery shops and newsagents. The new law will ensure that the visible presence of these products is reduced and it is made clear these products are not the same as ordinary groceries. While we are acting now to protect our young people, EU-wide law would be most effective. The legislation must keep pace with a rapidly changing market to protect children and go further to drive down smoking rates across the EU. On 2 April the EU Commission published an evaluation report on a tobacco control legislation framework, including the tobacco products directive. This paves the way for a formal proposal for a revised directive. The Minister, Deputy Carroll MacNeill, and I have committed that Ireland will do as much as it can to progress a revised directive if the proposal is published by the Commission during our EU Presidency. That would be really important for us. We are putting in place strong measures to reduce the appeal and availability of vapes and pouches to young people in Ireland and we hope there is more regulation to come at EU level. The Bill before Senators is the first of these measures. There has been widespread support for this legislation in the Dáil and I look forward to our discussion on it. I will take Senators through the Bill to outline the content of each section. Part 1 relates to preliminary and general matters and contains sections 1 to 8. Section 1 provides for the Short Title of the Bill and for the commencement of its sections. Section 2 is the definition section and sets out the category of products that will be prohibited from sale under this Bill. It provides that a vape must be both refillable and rechargeable, or be otherwise designed and intended to be reused, to avoid the ban. Section 3 ensures that the Bill will not apply to medical devices, accessories for a medical device or medical products. Section 4 is a standard section providing for the residence of a body corporate or unincorporated persons. Section 5 provides power for the Minister for Health to make regulations as needed. It also provides that any regulations must be laid before the Houses of the Oireachtas. Section 6 is a standard section providing for the service of documents. Section 7 provides for a six-month transition period from the commencement of the prohibition. This gives our supermarkets, convenience stores, specialist shops and others that sell these products six months to make whatever business arrangements are necessary to comply with this prohibition. Section 8 is a standard section on expenses. Part 2 relates to the prohibition on single-use vapes and its enforcement and contains sections 9 to 13. Section 9 sets out the prohibition on the retail sale of single-use vapes in the State. It provides that it is an offence for any person to contravene it. Section 10 provides for the appointment of authorised officers for ensuring compliance with this Act. The Act will be enforced by our national environmental health service, which is the body that enforces the rest of our tobacco control and related law. Section 11 is a standard section that provides for the indemnification of the authorised officers. Section 12 provides for the powers of our environmental health officers to ensure compliance with the Act. This includes powers to enter a premises if there are reasonable grounds to believe that vapes will be found there or documents or other records relating to vapes; to inspect such premises and take copies of documents or records; to remove and detain any vape, or component of a vape, or any documents or records, where the officer has reasonable cause to suspect that there has been a contravention of this Act; and to require any person to provide relevant information, including for the purposes of ascertaining the ownership of websites. Section 13 provides for a prohibition notice in the case of contravention of section 9. A prohibition notice can direct a person that the contravention should cease immediately, require a single-use vape to be withdrawn or recalled from the market, or require that a single-use vape be disposed of or destroyed. The Bill provides for an appeal against a prohibition notice to the District Court within seven days. It also provides that if a prohibition notice has been served, but the contravention continues, the national environmental health service can apply for a High Court order to prohibit that continuation. Part 3 is on penalties and miscellaneous provisions. It covers sections 14 to 20, inclusive. Section 14 provides for penalties for first and subsequent offences under the Act. A person guilty of an offence under the Act is liable for a first offence to a fine of up to €4,000, or to imprisonment for a term of up to six months, or to both. For any subsequent offence a guilty person is liable to a fine of up to €5,000, or to imprisonment for a term of up to 12 months, or to both. Section 15 is a standard provision on defences for offences under the Act. Section 16 is a standard section that provides for the liability of officers of a corporate body in the case of an offence by that corporate body. Section 17 allows the national environmental health service of the HSE to bring proceedings for an offence under this Act. In addition, it provides that on conviction, the court can order the person convicted to pay the costs and expenses incurred in relation to the investigation, detection and prosecution of the offence. Section 18 provides that offences may be prosecuted up to 12 months after being committed. Section 19 provides for an offence of providing false or misleading information in purported compliance with this Act. Section 20 provides for a process of disclosure which includes protections against the sharing of information that is legally privileged. I commend this Bill to this House. --- Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted. Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-04-28/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:52+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-04-28