Taoiseach Micheál Martin has said the Government is open to introducing legislation similar to proposals in the United Kingdom to ban the use of vapes in cars carrying children.
“We would [consider introducing similar legislation in Ireland]. I have a very low tolerance threshold for vapes. To put it mildly, I believe they represent the revenge of Big Tobacco after we took them on over cigarettes,” he said.
“What worries me about vapes is they came on to the market, on to shelves without any proper health assessment in terms of their impact on young people’s health and people’s health generally. There’s now lots of research saying they are very bad and can damage your health.”
Martin said the new Public Health (Tobacco Products and Nicotine Inhaling Products) (Amendment) Bill is currently going through the Oireachtas but the Government would “keep things under constant review in terms of what further measures we can take to deal with it.”
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Speaking in Cork, where he officially opened Scale Ireland’s fifth regional start-up summit, Martin made his comments as the British government unveiled plans to ban vaping in cars carrying children as well as in playgrounds and outside schools.
Smoking is already banned in indoor spaces in the UK, but the ban would be extended to include vaping in such spaces as well as in areas outside hospitals as Keir Starmer’s Labour government bids to protect children from second-hand smoking and vaping.
British health secretary Wes Streeting said children and patients should not have to suffer because others choose to smoke. “Second-hand smoke increases the risk of heart disease and lung cancer and we want to protect children and the sick from harm,” he said.
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A 12-week long public consultation process on the new plan launched by Streeting in the UK on Friday is seeking views on points such as which settings should have a ban implemented, exemptions, and how to inform people of the restrictions.
The UK government said findings from the consultation would “help shape future regulations under the tobacco and vapes Bill”, which it said would “create a smoke-free generation and protect young people from a lifetime of addiction”.
Last year, the UK’s Office for National Statistics reported figures for 2024 which showed that for the first time there were more people over 16 using vapes or e-cigarettes than smoking, with 5.4 million adults using vapes daily or occasionally compared with 4.9 million using cigarettes.
In Ireland, the 2024 European School Survey Project on Alcohol and Other Drugs found that, among 15–16-year-olds, about 32 per cent of students have tried e-cigarettes or vaping, while 16 per cent of students are current users, with 7 per cent reporting daily use.
Last November, the Taoiseach said it was important to focus on eliminating the use of vapes over time, and new legislation would aim to restrict advertising vapes that did not exist when he as minister for health introduced the smoking ban in 2004.
Meanwhile, also in November Minister for Health Jennifer Carroll MacNeill secured Cabinet approval for the Public Health (Single Use Vapes) Bill 2025 to ban the sale of single-use or disposable vapes, which follows a similar move in Northern Ireland last April.
Carroll MacNeill said the Public Health (Tobacco Products and Nicotine Inhaling Products) Bill will restrict the flavours for sale and the advertising of these products in all shops.
