Disposable vapes set to be banned in crackdown that will also target flavours and advertising

The Government earlier this year moved to ban the sale of vapes to children – and Health Minister Stephen Donnelly has now said he wants to ban single use e-cigarettes.

Earlier this week, Fianna Fáil TD Paul McAuliffe called for disposable vapes to be banned altogether by Government due to their environmental impact.

Mr Donnelly said he was now planning a second piece of legislation to further clamp down on vapes, which would curb flavours and where they’re advertised in shops.

“I fully support the policy,” Mr Donnelly told the Irish Independent. “I’m drafting a second vaping bill to address further issues: flavours, point of sale advertising, possibly other issues.”

Mr Donnelly said previously that flavours and designs for vapes were “child-friendly” and that the Government would bring in its own laws if ones at EU level were taking too long.

Minister for the Circular Economy, Ossian Smyth, has said he wants to see disposable vapes banned, saying they are “making the world a worse place”.

There are more than 240,000 vapers in Ireland with 13pc of ex-smokers using e-cigarettes, according to the 2019 Healthy Ireland Survey, released by the Department of Health.

Disposable vapes can be difficult to recycle because they contain a battery, which needs to be removed and recycled separately. A public consultation on the issue concluded last month.

Mr Smyth has said disposable vapes could be banned under Circular Economy Act, which allows a ban on single-use plastics, or through an EU directive on single-use plastics.

“I’d be interested in including a ban on disposable vapes in the Bill, if it’s something Ossian [Smyth] would find useful,” said Mr Donnelly.

Electric Picnic, attended by more than 70,000 people earlier this month, banned single-use vapes from being brought in to the festival.

The UK and France have already announced plans to ban disposable vapes.

In Australia vapes can be bought with a prescription, Germany has banned flavoured e-cigarettes and New Zealand has also banned most vapes and restricted how they are marketed to kids.

Mr McAuliffe recently wrote to Fianna Fáil councillors around the country asking about the true cost of disposing of single use e-cigarettes and whether the issue had been raised at council meetings.

The Government earlier this year passed laws banning the sale of vapes to under-18s and to restrict how they are sold and advertised.

Shops found to have sold vapes to children will face fines up to €4,000 or up to six months in jail. For subsequent offences, there is a fine of up to €5,000 or 12 months in prison.

One of the country’s leading vaping businesses, BAT Ireland, criticised the Government for not passing the ban on sale of vapes to children by mid-July, as had been Mr Donnelly’s intention.

The company’s country manager David Melinn said it was unclear why the Government was “dragging its heels” on the issue.

He said the Public Health (Tobacco and Nicotine Inhaling Products) Bill had been due to go before the Oireachtas Health Committee, but the meeting was cancelled and so the ban was still not in place.

“Vaping is playing a vitally important role in helping adult smokers to quit, but it’s important that legislation is in place to ensure under-18s cannot access these products – this legislation will be key to enforcing this,” said Mr Melinn.

“Vaping should only ever be used by adult smokers who are looking to quit.”