By Irishexaminer.com,Tadgh McNally

Copyright irishexaminer

Speaking during a debate on youth vaping and tobacco use, Ms Murnane O’Connor said she wanted to see the level of tobacco use among children fall to 0%.

She referred to proposed laws in the UK which would ban anyone born after 2008 from buying cigarettes.

“We will examine all possible options, including groundbreaking measures like the UK approach,” Ms Murnane O’Connor said.

This legislation, tabled by the UK Government, is currently progressing through the houses of parliament. It had originally been suggested by former UK prime minister Rishi Sunak, at a party conference in 2023.

A similar ban was introduced by New Zealand and was passed into law in 2022, but a new Government — elected in 2023 — confirmed it would scrap the plan in order to fund tax cuts.

Ms Murnane O’Connor highlighted a recent report, which showed smoking rates in children had reduced to 5% as of 2022, compared to 19% in 2002.

This reduction is very welcome, but we want that figure to be zero. Our children should be free from a future blighted by the harms of tobacco.

It comes after the previous Government enacted new laws which will increase the smoking age from 18 to 21, beginning in 2028.

The junior minister’s call comes amid plans to legislate for the banning of single-use vapes, as well as the introduction of plain packaging and outlawing point-of-sale advertising.

The proposals are to come into place through two separate pieces of legislation, with the department of health saying they are at an advanced stage of drafting.

The first law will ban single-use vapes, while the second will be more broad and include significant restriction on the sale of nicotine products.

This includes restrictions on their packaging, with particular focus on the colours and imagery both on boxes and the vapes themselves.

The law will also restrict the flavours available for sale and “prohibit all flavour descriptors and language other than basic flavour names”. Point-of-sale displays and advertisements within shops will also be barred, except in specialist stores.

This means they will be kept out of view, similarly to how cigarettes and other tobacco products are stored. Bans will also be placed on any device which either resembles or functions as other products, such as toys or games.

One Government source said the laws were being prepared as a response to the tobacco industry “innovating beyond all measures” used to restrict the sale of cigarettes.