Public Health (Single-Use Vapes) Bill 2025: Second Stage
Seanad Éireann — 2026-04-28
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Paul Daly (FF), Agricultural Panel

I welcome the Minister of State and compliment her on the great work she is doing on this Bill. I apologise there was nobody here from her own party. There was a misunderstanding and I am here now with no homework done. As a reformed smoker for the moment anyway because you are never completely off them, I can probably speak on this topic without have done the proverbial homework. The Bill does not go far enough. I am speaking personally in that I think vapes should be banned, end of story. I would have cigarettes 100 times a day before I would touch a vape. I probably could have given up smoking a lot sooner if I had given in to the temptation to use them as a way of getting off cigarettes but I would not, thankfully, let myself inhale something I had not got a clue what was in it. That is not to justify cigarettes - at least I knew what was in them and what I was smoking. A good friend of mine said if you want to stay smoking, smoke a cigar because it is pure tobacco and you will not get a better smoke. A cigarette has some additives but a vape has God knows what. The single-use vape thing takes from the whole health side of this Bill. It sounds as if this is a litter issue and the Bill is being introduced to avoid unwanted litter and disposable vapes. It actually is a health Bill being introduced for health purposes. I would ban them all. I had a good social conversation with the principal of a secondary school about a year ago. While he had a list the length of his arm of asks when it came to the educational needs of the school, when he had the ear of a politician, his one request was to ban vapes. He said they would know in the afternoon students were after having - it would not have been vanilla - in a vape at dinner time. It was obvious. While some were over 18 and you could not stop them vaping in their own time during lunch, it was not vanilla they were vaping, was the way he put it. It was hard stuff. How do we know what is in them and who puts what into them? I welcome the Bill. The Minister of State will have our full support. It is a move in the right direction. It is a personal opinion that they should be banned in their entirety but at least the Minister of State is making an effort and starting the wheels in motion. If disposable vapes are banned, I also agree with what was said by previous speakers that they are too obvious and evident. We have done it with drink in off-licences and supermarkets where they have been put behind closed doors. We have done it with cigarettes, taken away the branding and put them behind closed doors. When you walk into a shop now, you would not know if there were cigarettes there or not. If you walk down any street in any rural town, along with the bookies, the coffee shop and a few other mainstays, there is a vape shop. This is big money business when they can have stand-alone shops. When big money is involved, there is a big battle to fight. I compliment the Minister of State and guarantee our support through the process of the Bill.

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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