Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)

The HSE view, and, obviously, it knows what it is talking about from a clinical perspective, is that the way to help people give up smoking is through smoking cessation programmes, NRT, etc. Speaking personally, I know people who have moved from cigarettes to vapes. I believe them when they say that if vapes did not exist, they would be smoking. In the UK, there is a focus on vaping as an alternative to smoking. I do not think our position is incongruous. Most of us know former smokers who now vape. The clinical evidence we have is that smoking is far more damaging than vaping to an adult. That may changes over years. Vaping is still relatively new.