Ireland publishes findings of public consultation

In Ireland, the Irish Minister of Health recently published the findings of a public consultation on the regulation of tobacco and nicotine products. Citing strong public support for stronger legislation, Stephen Donnelly announced that he would look into bans on disposable e-cigarettes, point-of-sale advertising of vaping products, and the extension of plain packaging to all tobacco and nicotine products.

This consultation was conducted between November 2023 and January 2024, and received over 15,000 responses. The report states that despite the high participation in the consultation, it does not reflect public opinion in Ireland, as the respondents do not constitute a representative sample of the population. For example, 90% of respondents from the general public declared themselves to be vapers. The department also reports that coordinated strategies were put in place, in particular by economic stakeholders, to influence the conclusions of the consultation. These practices by economic stakeholders aimed at distorting the results of consultations are common in the tobacco and vaping sector. As the report notes difficulties in accurately identifying these so-called "fraudulent" responses, these have been retained.

Point of Sale Display and Advertising in Ireland

Nearly two-thirds of respondents said they were in favour of better regulation of displays at points of sale. Among the general non-vaping public, 64.4% support a complete ban on displays and advertising at the point of sale, compared to around 28% among vapers. Such a measure is, however, very widely supported by educational staff (94.4%) and by people declaring that they work in health (72.3%).

Plain packaging and appearance of nicotine products

The consultation also looked at the appearance of nicotine products and their packaging. Overall, two-thirds of respondents reported support for stronger regulation in this area. In particular, the most popular option among respondents was to ban the use of animations, cartoons and images targeting children and adolescents (60 %), followed by banning colours (25 %) and brands or logos (16 %).

Regulation of flavors

Participants in the consultation were also asked to comment on the best way to regulate flavors for nicotine products. Given the very high over-representation of e-cigarette consumers, 62.8% of respondents said they were opposed to strengthening the legislation. Those opposed to such a measure notably argued that flavours could play an inciting role for smokers to turn to e-cigarettes, or that a restriction or ban on flavours would encourage the illicit trade in nicotine products. However, all health organisations stressed the importance of strengthening the regulation of flavours, particularly to reduce the attractiveness of new products to adolescents.

Despite the over-representation of vapers in the responses, almost half of respondents believe that flavour descriptors can be an incentive to consume (47.8%). All health organisations that participated in the consultation share this opinion.

Smoking banned on restaurant and cafe terraces

Similarly, more than 70% of respondents participating in the consultation declared themselves opposed to the ban on smoking on the terraces of bars and restaurants. They justified their position by arguing in particular that these bans would discriminate against smokers, that they could result in a loss of income for traders, or that passive smoking would have no consequences on health.

Conversely, all health organizations, and a large majority of teachers, health professionals and non-smokers support a ban on smoking in these areas, arguing in particular that passive smoking is a major public health issue, particularly for children who are exposed to it, and for school staff. Furthermore, supporters of the measure highlight the role that such restrictions could play in denormalizing smoking.

Age increase and tobacco-free generation

Two-thirds of respondents said they did not want the age of prohibition on the sale of tobacco products to be raised. On this point, the consultation proposed two options: raising the legal age to 21, or establishing a date delimiting the first generation without tobacco. Thus, all people born from this date (for example 2014), would not be able to buy tobacco. Here again, this proposal was approved by all health organizations, as well as a large majority of teachers, health professionals and non-vapers.

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