Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I, the officials and the Office of the Parliamentary Counsel are confident the current approach is correct and is legally robust.

I thank colleagues for their support. I appreciate that there are always challenges when we bring these measures in, as there should and must be. Ultimately, we are speaking about saving many lives. We are speaking about significantly reducing the number of children, by which I mean those aged between 14 and 17, going into addiction. This will definitely happen. We will reduce smoking tobacco addiction for young adults aged between 18 and 20. This is new ground for Ireland. I found interesting that in some vox pops, which were conducted by the media when I first announced this, those aged between 16 and 20 showed overwhelming support for it. As we know, they would not necessarily always give the most supportive of responses. In fact, the young people I have spoken to about this, be they in school or be they young adults in work or in college, are broadly supportive of this.

We want to move on from tobacco. I do not need to tell anyone here that in my role over the past four to five years as Minister for Health I have seen up close and personal a lot of the damage that smoking does, including to young people and teenagers. Teenagers are getting out of breath at the top of the school stairs which, by the way, the vapes are doing to them also. While I have listened very carefully and I respect the positions being put forward, ultimately this is the right thing to do. It is a child protection and young adult protection measure that will save many lives in years to come.

I thank those Senators who are going to support the Bill. I hear them and respect the views of those who may object. On balance, however, I believe this is the right thing to do.