Results 61-80 of 1,148,921 for in 'Dáil debates' OR (speaker:John Carty OR speaker:Roderic O'Gorman OR speaker:Kieran O'Donnell OR speaker:Seán Fleming OR speaker:Mary Lou McDonald OR speaker:Darren O'Rourke OR speaker:Martin Heydon OR speaker:Francis Noel Duffy OR speaker:Imelda Munster OR speaker:Matt Shanahan OR speaker:Ivana Bacik OR speaker:John McGuinness OR speaker:Bríd Smith OR speaker:Paul Murphy OR speaker:Stephen Donnelly OR speaker:Michael Ring OR speaker:Neasa Hourigan OR speaker:Denise Mitchell OR speaker:Damien English OR speaker:David Stanton OR speaker:Aengus Ó Snodaigh OR speaker:Alan Farrell OR speaker:Colm Burke OR speaker:Joan Collins) in 'Committee meetings'

Select Committee on Health: Public Health (Tobacco) (Amendment) Bill 2024: Committee Stage (10 Oct 2024)

Stephen Donnelly: On 10 September, I brought a memorandum to the Cabinet on the proposed vaping legislation. I now have Government approval to draft the Bill. A comprehensive heads of Bill document is in place. My officials, including the two officials with me today, have put a lot of work into that. It was more complex than I originally envisaged. When we are restricting packaging and colouring, there is...

Select Committee on Health: Public Health (Tobacco) (Amendment) Bill 2024: Committee Stage (10 Oct 2024)

Stephen Donnelly: No. It is the opposite.

Select Committee on Health: Public Health (Tobacco) (Amendment) Bill 2024: Committee Stage (10 Oct 2024)

Stephen Donnelly: The official advice from the HSE for smokers is not to take up vaping but to use nicotine replacement therapy, NRT. As the Deputy is aware, we have made those products free. The initial indications are positive in terms of the impact that is having. What the Minister, Deputy Chambers, did by way of taxation is consistent with our public health position, which is not to move people from...

Select Committee on Health: Public Health (Tobacco) (Amendment) Bill 2024: Committee Stage (10 Oct 2024)

Stephen Donnelly: 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...

Select Committee on Health: Public Health (Tobacco) (Amendment) Bill 2024: Committee Stage (10 Oct 2024)

Stephen Donnelly: The HSE's position is not based around smoking versus vaping; it is about smoking versus not smoking through NRT.

Select Committee on Health: Public Health (Tobacco) (Amendment) Bill 2024: Committee Stage (10 Oct 2024)

Stephen Donnelly: No, I heard and understand the Deputy's point. The public health view is not to encourage people to move from smoking to vaping.

Select Committee on Health: Public Health (Tobacco) (Amendment) Bill 2024: Committee Stage (10 Oct 2024)

Stephen Donnelly: That is its view.

Select Committee on Health: Public Health (Tobacco) (Amendment) Bill 2024: Committee Stage (10 Oct 2024)

Stephen Donnelly: I hear what the Deputy is saying. However, the public health position is to encourage smokers to move to not smoking by using NRT. The advice from the officials is that this is the approach, rather than vaping being an interim tool.

Select Committee on Health: Public Health (Tobacco) (Amendment) Bill 2024: Committee Stage (10 Oct 2024)

Stephen Donnelly: I do not mind.

Select Committee on Health: Public Health (Tobacco) (Amendment) Bill 2024: Committee Stage (10 Oct 2024)

Neasa Hourigan: I have a very quick comment on the point about living in the real world. In the lifetime of the Government, we have seen, for the first time in 25 years, an increase in young people starting to smoke and vape. We are talking about nicotine replacement therapy or treatment as a temporary issue, but that is not what we are talking about when we talk about vaping. We are talking about...

Select Committee on Health: Public Health (Tobacco) (Amendment) Bill 2024: Committee Stage (10 Oct 2024)

Neasa Hourigan: It is not a question for the Minister.

Select Committee on Health: Public Health (Tobacco) (Amendment) Bill 2024: Committee Stage (10 Oct 2024)

Stephen Donnelly: I think the point-----

Select Committee on Health: Public Health (Tobacco) (Amendment) Bill 2024: Committee Stage (10 Oct 2024)

Stephen Donnelly: Yes, it is different. The advice I have is that the UK and New Zealand have vaping as part of their smoking cessation policy, but that no other country does. The WHO is taking an increasingly hard line on vaping. My understanding is that is for two reasons: the first of which chimes with Deputy Hourigan's point that it is still highly addictive. The second is that the evidence is still...

Select Committee on Health: Public Health (Tobacco) (Amendment) Bill 2024: Committee Stage (10 Oct 2024)

Stephen Donnelly: Yes, I agree with that, with the caveat that it is happening anyway, and there are a lot of different bits to it.

Select Committee on Health: Public Health (Tobacco) (Amendment) Bill 2024: Committee Stage (10 Oct 2024)

Stephen Donnelly: Yes.

Select Committee on Health: Public Health (Tobacco) (Amendment) Bill 2024: Committee Stage (10 Oct 2024)

Stephen Donnelly: Yes, of course. Absolutely.

World Mental Health Day: Statements (10 Oct 2024)

Marc Ó Cathasaigh: I thank the Minister of State. That concludes statements to mark World Mental Health Day: Making Mental Health a Priority for Everyone.

Teachtaireacht ón Seanad - Message from Seanad (10 Oct 2024)

Teachtaireacht ón Seanad - Message from Seanad (10 Oct 2024)

Marc Ó Cathasaigh: Seanad Éireann has passed the Electricity Costs (Emergency Measures) Domestic Accounts Bill 2024, without amendment.

Ábhair Shaincheisteanna Tráthúla - Topical Issue Matters (10 Oct 2024)