Louise O'Reilly: Close the Vape Gateway to Children

Go raibh maith agat, lasgaith an choraile, and I welcome the opportunity to speak on this debate this evening. I think we can all agree that the the hallmark of big tobacco and big tobacco companies, their calling card is their deep pockets and their seemingly endless, endless, endless supply of marketing budgets. That's for that reason that I distrust a significant amount of what's termed evidence that has been emailed to me this week in relation to vaping and vaping products and indeed people who, I think what's the phrase, in the in the pocket of big tobacco or our big, whatever they are, telling me how harmless they are and see when someone is telling me that over and over again that that makes me pause. That said, we could all say the same thing about alcohol but we have agreed as a state that 18 is where the cutoff is and after that point you make your own decisions and I do think there has to be an element of us being sensible about this and I say that as a former very, very committed smoker I can say with my hand on my heart I enjoyed every single one of them and it was torture to give up smoking. I am glad that I did every single day, it'll be 20 years next January I think. I am glad that I did but that does not take away from the fact that I absolutely enjoyed every single one and when I had access to them as a young child, I should not have had access to them, they were in single-use form, single cigarettes that you could buy and a packet of matches. I suppose that's probably evidence of how old I am as well. But that's and anything that acts as an entry for children into that world of smoking and nicotine and tobacco consumption needs to be closed off, that avenue needs to be closed off. I can safely say as a 12 and a 13 year old had I not been able to buy cigarettes in the single cigarette in the shop for eightpence or tenpence then I definitely would not have been in a position to smoke. So when we say that these products are not for over 18s I think we need to be very clear the damage that that these products can do. That said there are many many people in my own family and in my own community who tell me that being able to use the vape was a significant element in them being able to give up smoking and that can't be ignored. Now that doesn't mean that we say that that the vapes are the be-all and end-all, I would agree that we need to regulate where they are. I don't like someone blowing vape smoke into my face I don't know what's in it they want to take it that's fine but I don't like it and I do think we need to have a bit more regulation around it when you're on the train when you're on the bus very obvious there's signs up when you're on a plane etc but in some areas there is a bit of a there is a bit of a grey area and I think we need to make sure that that is regulated for the benefit of of everybody and also just to say that in the run into this debate I was contacted by very very many parents and their big worry and it's really hard to fathom this minister their big worry is that their children will start with vapes because of the easy accessibility and I know the intention is to reduce that but that they will move from vapes into cigarette smoking. That to me see when I see adults with a vape you know they're not going back to traditional cigarettes they're trying to put a bit of distance between them and traditional cigarettes but the idea that children will start vaping and then move on to smoking cigarettes that and that is a big big concern for parents who they want to make sure that their children are protected from these harmful intoxicants because that's what they are but also that there is work done to ensure that they don't progress on or regress on should we say to being a cigarette smoker.