Richard O'Donoghue warns of youth vaping and pop-up shops

Thank you. I'm a reformed smoker myself. I haven't smoked a cigarette in 30 years and when you came in then it was the smoking ban which was targeted and it was targeted at adults and these one-off vapes don't agree with it but then again if you're an adult you should have the common sense yourself whether to use one or not. And me personally I nearly prefer to see somebody smoking a cigarette than actually what's inside of those vapes because it's unknown what's inside of them and the adverse reaction to them but again then if you're an adult that's a decision you've got to make. My issue is with the amount of pop-up shops that are selling these vapes. We've had shops for years that have been there for decades had to close down because they couldn't make a living. But yet these pop-up shops can go and sit up in streets where it's high end where they need to keep the doors open and they can make massive profits to keep the doors open and just sell vapes. I think it's absolutely crazy. And we have generations upon generations of people trying to have their shops open for delivery of food and goods to people and can't keep it open but a pop-up shop can do it. I have massive concerns about the age group now that are taking these vapes. As young as nine they're getting vapes. As young as nine and they're getting strawberry flavour, Coca-Cola flavour. How easily did our children at that age? 100% there should be a crackdown on the vapes. When the smoking ban came in you said that you tried to limit the amount of people that were on cigarettes and you raised the taxes and raised the taxes and raised the taxes on cigarettes. There's a lot higher addiction in this country on nicotine at the moment than there is on people that are smoking. The highest is now that people are vaping. The one-off vapes and the cats are thrown away and we're talking about looking at recycling, we're talking about looking after the environment and all these things being thrown on the ground. And the people then that have the refillable vapes, we know of an issue with them as well because it looks like now you can actually put in liquid cocaine and things into these things and they could be on drugs while they're having the vapes. But again, you make the decisions for yourself when you're an adult. If you go down that slippery road, you're the adult. But for any person that is not an adult and any person that gives these vapes to people that are under the age, which the higher rigour of the law should apply. As I said, you have children from the age of 9, 10 upwards. But also there's a responsibility here, and it hasn't been mentioned, the responsibility of the parent themselves. They're vaping themselves and they're showing their children it's okay to vape. Again, accountability comes back to parenting as well. As I say, from the point of view of children and a person that is under the age of 18, you're responsible for those. For a person that's an adult and over, you're responsible for yourself and your health and what you're putting into your body. We can try and put in things in place that tell you, listen, they're bad for you. But you're putting it into your own body. And I heard somebody mention it recently, and I actually told a person myself, I said, you might be better off to go out and put your lips around the exhaust of a car with the fumes that are coming out of it, from what you're actually taking in on some of these vapes. It's unknown to what's coming in these vapes. But any person that gives vapes or sells vapes to a child should be 100% held accountable. And I'll be 100% behind that. Thank you. Thank you.