Jennifer Murnane O'Connor, Minister of State at the Department of Health: I move: "That the Bill be now read a Second Time."

I am delighted to be here today to introduce the Public Health (Tobacco Products and Nicotine Inhaling Products) (Amendment) Bill to the House. The purpose of the Bill is to reduce the appeal and accessibility of e-cigarettes, vapes and other nicotine products such as pouches to young people. This Bill and the single-use vapes Bill together with the 2023 Act mean that we will have one of the strongest regulatory frameworks in the EU on these products.

According to the current evidence e-cigarettes may be less harmful than tobacco smoking but this does not mean that they are harmless. Our priority with this Bill is to protect the health of our young people and non-smokers by reducing the likelihood that they will take up or continue to use products like vapes. The primary health risk for our children is that the use of nicotine may become an addiction which could lead to tobacco smoking with the absolutely devastating health harms that can cause.

While we may all have heard stories or even known someone who had no difficulties with quitting cigarettes, the evidence tells us that around 90% of people who smoke are addicted to nicotine and find it very difficult to overcome that addiction. This is not the future that we want for our young people or for those who do not already smoke.

The evidence confirms the risk to young people with a report from our Health Research Board finding that adolescents who vape are more likely to subsequently smoke. While it is a very important achievement that smoking rates among children have reduced to 5% from frighteningly higher levels in the past, we all agree that our aim should be to bring this down to 0%. Tackling tobacco head on is necessary to ensure that we reach our smoking-free goal for adults and children. However, regulating nicotine products is also important to ensure that these products do not contribute to an increase in smoking prevalence among our young people.

There are many concerns about the continues. Since July 2014 the World Health Organization has recommended that the sale of e-cigarettes to minors should be banned as there is evidence that nicotine may have long-term consequences for brain development. The figures on the use of vapes by our young people are mixed in the trends they are showing. Our 2022 health behaviour in school-aged children study found that 90% of the 12- to 17-year-old children have used an e-cigarette at least once. This is a decrease from 22% on 2018. In the same survey 13% reported that they had used an e-cigarette in the past 30 days, which is an increase from 9% in 2018. This data shows that the gap between ever using and use in the past 30 days has narrowed, suggesting that more children may be converting from experimentation to regular use.

The 2024 European school survey project on alcohol and other drugs of 15- to 16-year-olds found that 16% were current vape users which is a decrease from 18% in 2019. Some 32% were found to have tried vapes in 2024 which is down from 39% in 2019. Daily use of vapes in 2024 was recorded at 7% which is up from 5% in 2019. While this shows an encouraging reduction in experimentation and current use, it is the increase in daily use which this Bill is designed to address. The European school survey also found that 3% were currently using nicotine pouches. Although this figure is low, it is important that we act now to prevent its increase.

To make nicotine-inhaling products less attractive to our young people, the Bill will restrict the colours and imagery on packaging and on the devices themselves. The Bill will ban the sale of devices resembling or functioning as other products such as toys or games. This is to ensure that the Irish market does not see the evolution of these products into multi-use devices with features that would specifically attract young people. It will also restrict the flavours for sale and will prohibit all flavour descriptors and language other than basic flavour names. This is to eliminate 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 so that our children are not exposed to these products in their everyday life. It will also make it clear that these products are not the same as ordinary grocery goods.

The European schools survey project found that nearly 4% of our 15- to 16- year-olds used nicotine pouches in the last 30 days. Evidence is not yet available on the possible effects of these products, therefore the only harm that is known is that these products contain nicotine.

The Bill creates a new category of products called nicotine consumption products. This category includes pouches and any other product for the recreational consumption of nicotine, other than tobacco, nicotine inhaling products and medical products. By creating this new category, the Bill is future-proofed and any new products for the recreational consumption of nicotine will automatically fall under its provisions.

Current and 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.

Regulation of the way that current and future nicotine consumption products are sold in our country can be done effectively in national law. The regulation of the products themselves would, of course, be most effective if it was introduced at EU level. A revision of the EU tobacco products directive which is the relevant EU law is long overdue. EU-wide measures on current and future nicotine-inhaling products and nicotine-consumption products would ensure that the measures in each country are supported because the ability to purchase from another member state with different product specifications would no longer exist.

An evaluation report from the European Commission on the directive was recently published. The next step is the publication of a proposal for a revised directive. The Minister, Deputy Carroll MacNeill, and I have repeatedly called for that proposal to be published as soon as possible. I repeat that today. I am asking the European Commission to publish its plan for a revised directive as soon as possible. I also join the Minister, Deputy Carroll MacNeill, in promising that Ireland will do all that it can to progress the directive, if the proposal is received during Ireland’s Presidency of the EU...

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