Public Health (Tobacco Products and Nicotine Inhaling Products) (Amendment) Bill 2026: Second Stage Seanad Éireann — 2026-09-22 ============================================================ Joanne Collins (SF), Agricultural Panel I welcome the Minister of State to the Chamber. I am probably the only person who will stand up and not necessarily advocate for vaping but I will advocate against the banning of flavours. As everyone knows, I am a former smoker and a current vaper. I have spoken to many people over the summer. It is funny. When you are on a night out and you leave the pub or you are at a wedding and you go outside to have a vape, because we have spoken about this so much in the House the first thing people say to me is: "Oh my God, please tell me they are not actually going to ban our flavours." These are adults that I am talking about, not children. Not for one minute do I advocate for children to be vaping. For anybody who has never smoked a day in their life to pick up a vape is very silly because it is an addiction. Nicotine is an addictive substance. I started smoking at the age of 11, back when I knew no better. I wish I could go back in time and not do that. As I have said before, I gave up smoking and took up vaping for cost reasons. It had nothing to do with health reasons. I did not see that side of it because I was a smoker and I enjoyed smoking. I will give the Minister some statistics that have been shown to me. According to a Red C poll, 33% of ex-smokers said they would return to cigarettes if flavours were banned; 73% said the fruit flavours are key to them staying off cigarettes; 49% would source flavours online and outside of the State if the ban goes ahead; 71% believe that a flavour ban would push vapers back to smoking; and 7% support a full ban on flavoured vapes. I hear that and I put it together with the tax revenue that is brought in on both nicotine and vape products. Nicotine products bring in a tax of €16.2 million per week. According to a Dáil parliamentary answer from last February, vape products will bring in an estimated €17 million a year. There is a huge difference between €16.2 million on tobacco products every week and €17 million a year on vape products. If I were to make an educated guess, I would think that maybe the Government does not mind the fact that a lot of vapers could go back on cigarettes when that kind of revenue is going to come in from tobacco products. That is the way I am looking at it. You cannot put this under health if you are going to say that people can keep vaping as long as it is just tobacco flavour. There is no difference between strawberry ice or blueberry and tobacco. It is not going to make a difference to your health. If it is going to fall under health, it should be all or nothing. In my lifetime, I can never remember hearing anybody stand up in any of these two Chambers to say that we need to ban cigarettes. That is because they bring massive revenue into this country. The tax on them is huge. I do not see why we need this all of a sudden. If it is to do with children, a law was brought forward last year that vape products cannot be sold to those aged under 18. We need to make sure the law is enforced and make sure the consequences are high enough so that retailers do not serve the under-18s. I feel that, as Senator Conway said, we are going down the route of the nanny state - you can vape, but you can only vape the products that we are telling you that you can vape. You can only use the flavours that we think you should use. I get it. I can only imagine that the rainbow cloud flavour is probably Skittles and candy floss stuck together. Most adults do not buy rainbow cloud but they will buy a fruit flavour. They will buy strawberry, cola, blueberry or something else because it tastes nicer. I know that sounds awful. If it is just tobacco flavour, many people, including me - I put my hand up - will be back on cigarettes tomorrow. Everybody I met over the summer months has been saying that to me. I hear Senators and TDs advocating for this on the grounds that so many vape shops are being opened, and they are vibrant, and the colours are drawing children in. Each local authority has a development plan. If it is that much of a problem, why are councillors not going to the local authority to say, for example, that there are ten vape shops open in Newcastle West or Limerick city and we do not need them, or we do not need them to have pink writing all over them, or pictures of sweets and vapes beside each other in the shop? There are rules and plans, and it is for every local authority to enforce those rules. I do not think that is a reason to ban vapes. I feel that we are going backwards in this country. If these flavours get banned, a huge percentage will go back on cigarettes. I know the Minister of State has stated there is scope in the Bill to reverse this or add flavours. I am telling the Minister of State that once the flavours are gone and somebody goes back on cigarettes, it will be quite hard to get them back off cigarettes when we say sorry to them, that they can have their strawberry flavour back and that they should go back on the vapes because tobacco is worse for them than is the nicotine. The Minister of State is playing with fire and we need to leave flavours in. If this is all about children going down the wrong route, it is collective punishment and I do not think collective punishment works because vaping will go underground. I can guarantee the Minister of State it will go underground. I have been offered cheaper prices for products which are obviously not being manufactured or sold in the State so I know they are there and the Minister of State will not be able to control them. The Minister of State is going too far with this. I agree 100% that children should not be vaping. If I caught my 16-year-old with a vape in her hand I would probably fall through the floor first and then I would burn every vape that I saw; I would get rid of them. I know it is hard to control. I was the 11-year-old who was down the alley smoking cigarettes; kids do these things. What if the rules are in place and enacted so shops cannot sell vapes? When I was young, I was able to buy cigarettes but as I got older, I was being asked for ID. The consequences need to be severe enough so that vapes are not sold to children and this collective punishment is wrong. --- 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