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The Irish government's sudden announcement of vape flavour bans, a ban on single use devices and huge tax hikes has shocked advocates. There is outrage because the public consultation had not demonstrated support for these measures. Filter's Will Godfrey reports on these policy developments and the reactions from advocates.


Transcription:

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Joanna Junak: Hello and welcome! I'm Joanna Junak and this is GFN News on GFN.tv. Today we'll be speaking with Will Godfrey of Filter about some recent policy developments in Ireland. Hi, well, what has the Irish government been doing?



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Will Godfrey: Hi, Joanna. Sadly, it's been taking a number of anti-vape steps, as Kieran Sidhu has been reporting for Filter, and its decisions have notably overridden findings of the government's own public consultation. In September, Health Minister Stephen Donnelly announced cabinet approval for a package of measures, including banning disposables, heavily restricting flavors, and banning point of sale displays. The government is simultaneously introducing new taxation. In October, it notified the EU of its plan, which from 2025 will tax vapes harder than any other EU country, more than doubling the cost of many products. That EU notification process was expedited, forestalling public comment.



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Joanna Junak: Speaking of public comment, what are the views of Irish advocates and the wider public?



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Will Godfrey: Well, the government previously held a public consultation on vaping, which closed in January after attracting responses from nearly 16,000 people. Its findings included that 63% opposed restrictions on vape flavors, while 90% did not agree that vapes should be taxed more heavily than in the rest of the EU. Their views seem to have counted for little. Our government has spun the response, said Tom Gleeson of New Nicotine Alliance Ireland, calling this a huge insult to the thousands of ordinary people who went to the trouble of making a submission. If disposables and flavours are removed from Ireland's regulated market, there is a huge danger that former smokers who use these products will return to smoking, said Garrett McGovern, a medical doctor and advocate in Dundram. Few adults who vape use tobacco flavour, while disposables for many are a low barrier way to switch. As for Ireland's coming vape tax, Damian Sweeney of NNA Ireland and ETHRA called it a tax on quitting smoking when it will reduce people's incentive to switch. He branded the government's avoidance of public comment when notifying the EU as cynical.



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Joanna Junak: And how is the government justifying these decisions?



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Will Godfrey: As usual in these cases, it's a youth vaping outcry. This legislation will tackle the rise in the use of vapes among children and young people by reducing their attractiveness and availability, said Health Minister Donnelly. The narrative around protecting children and preventing a new generation from addiction is quite powerful, Gleeson commented. However, it fails to consider the counter argument that in the absence of vapes, what would these children do? We know that prior to vaping, they smoked. Nonetheless, an ill-informed government has given in to moral panic, Dr. McGovern told Kieran. I believe Donnelly has been convinced of the youth e-cigarette epidemic by a well-coordinated group of people in my own profession largely, and he probably thinks that this is a vote winner, he added. What he doesn't seem to realise is that there are possibly 200,000 or more vapours in this country who are using these products to stop smoking. Regarding the tax plan, Sweeney noted that the products taxed most heavily will be those that youth rarely use. The big winner, he added, will be the illicit market, which is not known for age controls. As these anti-vape policies move forward, Ireland has an estimated smoking rate of 18%. In 2023, the Healthy Ireland survey found that 25% of people who managed to quit in the past year used vapes to do so. Who suffers the most in all this? McGovern asked. The smoker trying to quit.



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Joanna Junak: Thank you, Will. That's all for today. Tune in next time here on GFN TV or on our podcast. You can also find transcriptions of each episode on the GFN TV website. Thanks for watching or listening. See you next time.