Question proposed: "That the Bill be now read a Second Time."

Jennifer Murnane O'Connor, Minister of State at the Department of Health: 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....

[Click here to read the full debate on the Oireachtas website]