Fianna Fáil TD Malcolm Byrne is supporting proposals that would ban the sale of cigarettes and vapes to anyone born after a certain date.
The Wicklow-Wexford TD has published legislation aimed at creating a “smoke-free generation.”
The proposed plan comes after Britain and New Zealand passed similar legislation, although New Zealand later repealed the law.
On Newstalk Breakfast, Deputy Byrne said that “tobacco and nicotine use is Ireland's greatest public health challenge.”
He said that over 4,500 deaths every year are due to tobacco use, with estimates claiming nearly a 1,000 people are hospitalised every week from tobacco and nicotine use.
Deputy Byrne said it was the “logical step” in Ireland’s battle against nicotine, recounting how Ireland “led the world” with its workplace smoking ban.
‘I hope the European Union stands up to the tobacco lobby’
The Fianna Fáil TD accepted that the smoking ban led to a black market for tobacco products in New Zealand and argued that the New Zealand Government faced pressure from the tobacco lobby.
He hoped that Ireland and the European Union would “stand up to the tobacco lobby,” if the legislation was enacted here.
Deputy Byrne also argued that there is already a black market in tobacco and nicotine products in Ireland, highlighting “illegal cigarettes… [and] harmful nicotine inhaling devices.”
The ‘smokefree generation’ Bill
The Wicklow-Wexford TD explained that his Bill would ban the sale of tobacco or nicotine products to anyone born after the 1st of January 2009.
He also stated that the Bill would prohibit “the supply of such products to younger people” from those who avoid the law’s ban.
Deputy Byrne claimed the proposal had received support from the Irish Heart Foundation, the Royal College of Physicians, and “any medical-based organisation who will continue to talk about how tobacco remains our greatest public health challenge.”
Separately, Deputy Byrne said that the Government is planning to raise the legal age for the sale of “vapes and all tobacco products” from 18 to 21 by 2028.
