Public Health (Tobacco Products and Nicotine Inhaling Products) (Amendment) Bill 2026: Second Stage Seanad Éireann — 2026-09-22 ============================================================ Teresa Costello (FF), Agricultural Panel I thank the Minister of State for being here today. I welcome the Bill. It is an important public health issue, particularly for our children and young people. It is about ensuring that our legislation keeps pace with a nicotine market that is changing rapidly. For many years, when we talked about nicotine addiction, we were talking about cigarettes. Today it is very different. We have vapes in a wide range of flavours and packaging and we have newer products such as nicotine pouches, which are small, discreet and easily concealed. I welcome the fact that the Bill takes a future-proofed approach. It creates a category of nicotine consumption products that will encompass nicotine pouches and other recreational nicotine products that may emerge in the future. This is really important because we cannot be in a situation where every time a new nicotine product appears on the market, we have to play catch-up. The Bill will prohibit the sale of nicotine consumption products including pouches to people under 18. It restricts advertising and point-of-sale displays, regulates the appearance and packaging of nicotine inhaling products, restrict flavour descriptions and addresses devices designed to resemble or function as toys, games or other products. It is important that we look at why these measures are necessary. The concern is not simply that young people are using a new product; it is that we could have a whole new generation dependent on nicotine. The HSE tells us that children and young people are particularly vulnerable to the negative effects of nicotine. It is highly addictive. In a developing brain, it can cause problems with attention, learning, mood and impulse control. The pouches can contain high levels of nicotine. They can increase heart rate and blood pressure and cause sleep problems. They also cause concerns around teeth and gums, mouth ulcers, nausea and nicotine poisoning. Importantly, because these are relatively new products, we do not know their long-term health consequences yet. That is something we need to stop and think about, particularly when we are talking about children and teenagers potentially beginning to use these products at a young age. There is a question of well-being. Addiction is addiction, regardless of how nicotine is delivered. A young person should not feel they need nicotine to concentrate, relax, socialise or just to get through their day. The HSE's own research has found that experimentation with vaping can begin in children as they enter secondary school. Parents feel overwhelmed by the range of products available and uncertain about what their children may be using. The way some of these products are designed is significant, as has been dealt with in the Bill, with bright colours, sweet flavours and packaging that can resemble sweets and other everyday products. Research suggests that these characteristics can make vaping products particularly attractive to younger people. That is why I welcome the measures in the Bill dealing with the colours, imagery and flavour descriptions. I want to briefly mention the marketing. There have been concerning media reports in recent weeks about nicotine pouch brands having a presence at major Irish festivals, including Electric Picnic, Forbidden Fruit, All Together Now and Beyond The Pale. At Electric Picnic, for example, there were reportedly games and competitions, branded caps and sunglasses, and free nicotine pouches available to adults following age verification. The companies involved have said that their products are for adults and that age verification procedures were in place. That is fair and well, but it raises a broader question about the normalisation of nicotine. We spent decades removing tobacco advertising and sponsorship from sport and entertainment because we understood the power of associating an addictive product with music, friendship and social occasions. We should be careful that we do not allow that association to be recreated with a new generation of nicotine products. The market is growing rapidly. One leading pouch brand reportedly saw Irish sales increase from 6 million pouches in 2023 to 29 million in 2024. We should remember what Ireland has already achieved through public health legislation. The workplace smoking ban was a major change when it was introduced in 2004. Today, walking into a smoke-filled pub, restaurant or workplace would be alien to a whole generation of younger Irish people. That legislation protected workers and the public from second-hand smoke but it did something else. It changed what was considered normal and demonstrated that public health measures can change behaviour and attitudes over time. We should bring the same determination to protecting young people from nicotine addiction today. We need to be balanced in our approach. Many adults who vaped previously smoked. Some people use vaping while trying to move away from cigarettes. Preventing people from starting smoking and helping existing smokers to quit must remain priorities in our public health policy, as smoking continues to have an enormous human cost. Tobacco smoking kills more than 100 people every week in Ireland and causes more than 1,000 hospitalisations. I welcome the fact that regulation is being accompanied by investment in cessation. Funding of the HSE quit programme has increased substantially. For young people the HSE Quit4Youth programme provides specific support to help them stop smoking or vaping. That is important because our response cannot be about telling people what they cannot do. We have to help people who have developed an addiction to get out of it. There will always be another flavour, product or package, so future-proofing our legislation really matters. We need a regulatory framework capable of dealing not only with the products that are on the shelves today but with what will arrive. Through the smoking ban and other tobacco control measures, we have shown that strong public health policy can make a real difference and we should build on that progress. The objective is very clear: to prevent children and young people who do not smoke from becoming dependent on nicotine in the first place and to continue to support those who want to quit. I really welcome the Bill and thank the Minister of State for all her work. --- 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/2026-09-22/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-09-28T05:50:49+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-09-22