Minister Ossian Smyth reveals plans to ban disposable vapes

Minister of State Ossian Smyth, who has responsibility over Communications, eGovernment, Procurement and the Circular Economy, has shared his plans to ban disposable vapes across Ireland. 

When speaking on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland radio programme, the Green Party TD revealed that he wants to ban the single-use disposable vapes, rather than just vapes in general, under the new single-use plastic directive. 

He stated that a recent study found, “50% of young people who are vaping were choosing to use disposable vapes”.

“My concern, because I’m responsible for Circular Economy, is that this product which contains lithium ion batteries and electronics and so on is used for a very short period of time and then thrown away and that is just very wasteful”.

The TD continued, “I was at the Electric Picnic earlier this year, if you went to a summer festival, you’d have seen these very brightly coloured tubes all over the ground everywhere. So, they’re an innovation which I think is making the world a worse place”.

In terms of completely banning disposable vapes, Smyth said he understood he couldn’t just ban them, but a ban would reduce the amount of vapes sold and used in Ireland.

He announced that he would have to have a public consultation with people who use vapes and people who sell them to get information and opinions about his proposal, before a ban would occur.

“I know that you can never completely ban a product, there are always ways to find your way around it, but we’re at the stage now where it is the default option”, he added.

“It’s half the price of a cigarette, you can go out and buy them and I think people do want the reassurance from government if they are buying a vaping product and they’re putting it into their lungs that this is something that is certified, that they know the quantity of nicotine inside of them, which you wouldn’t know if you brought some random product off the internet and began to use it”.

Mr Smyth also added that there would be nicotine products legislation coming out later this year that will have more rules surrounding how old someone can be to buy vape products, as well as other legislation about nicotine consumption and vaping.