In order to compensate for what happened yesterday, six questions are being taken. I ask all party leaders to co-operate and adhere to the time limits.

The tobacco industry is one of the most evil industries that has ever existed, although it works within a legal framework. It has consigned millions of people to their deaths, destroyed millions of lives and injured and maimed millions more. It infamously targeted children to get them addicted young and secure customers for life. It suppressed for decades knowledge and research that proved how fatal tobacco smoking was. The comprehensive anti-tobacco legislation of 2002, coupled with the smoking ban of 2004, helped to de-normalise smoking and allowed for worker safety, while also preventing younger generations from engaging in a killer habit.

The tobacco industry, however, has struck back via the vaping epidemic. The vaping industry mirrors many of the strategies deployed by the tobacco industry, particularly in hooking young people and getting them addicted to nicotine. The financial muscle behind this epidemic is provided by the tobacco industry. Children are being targeted with colourful and flavoured vaping products. Pop-up shops selling vaping devices and e-cigarettes are located in the country's shopping centres and on main streets. Advertising campaigns have proliferated on nearly every Dublin bus, as well as on strategically placed billboards all over Dublin and across cities and towns. Last week the United States Center for Disease Control, CDC, produced some alarming statistics which confirmed that over 1,000 lung injuries and 19 deaths had already occurred in 48 states due to vaping. The CDC has warned that the aerosols users inhale and exhale from e-cigarettes can potentially expose them and bystanders to other harmful substances such as heavy metals and volatile organic compounds. As a result, there has been a flurry of legislative activity in a variety of US states banning the use of vaping devices and advertisements to varying degrees, particularly those aimed at young people. There has been an unacceptable level of youth usage of these products. Teen e-cigarette use has risen sharply since 2017. When will the Government introduce legislation to ban the sale of vaping products to people under the age of 18 years? Will it introduce legislation to ban all advertising and sponsorship of vaping products, as we did for tobacco products? Will the Government extend the existing ban on tobacco in the workplace to vaping? One wonders how such devices ever came into being. I ask the Taoiseach to send me at a later date a comprehensive account of the regulatory framework governing the vaping sector.

We can all agree that consuming tobacco is seriously injurious to one's health. It causes many forms of cancer, as well as severe illnesses such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, COPD, which leads to disability and other effects. I acknowledge Deputy Micheál Martin's work as Minister for Health and Children over a decade ago in banning smoking in the workplace, which saved lives. That work was followed up on by Senator James Reilly and others by bringing forward plain packaging and other measures which have made a huge difference. Fewer than 20% of people in Ireland now smoke and more people have quit tobacco than now use it.

Vaping is a relatively new phenomenon, although it has been around for a number of years. We need to look at the science and listen to doctors and public healthcare experts on such issues. Research is still under way on the impact vaping can have on the health of both adults and children. One can eat, drink, consume, or do many things that can be bad for one's health, but we do not necessarily prohibit or restrict them or ban their advertising. We need to assess the extent to which a product is damaging to someone's health and respond proportionately, having taken this into account. The Government will consider this issue and look at restricting the sale of vaping equipment to minors and prohibiting or restricting advertising, as the Deputy suggested. The question of vaping in the workplace relates mostly to second-hand effects, that is, whether somebody vaping has an impact on the person beside them. That was the basis for the workplace ban. The Government will definitely consider these policies, but we will do so based on the evidence, the scientific advice and what public health doctors and experts say. I am sure the Deputy agrees with that approach.

This epidemic developed from 2007 onwards. The fact that the tobacco industry is involved should send a warning signal to all concerned. There is terrible complacency about this issue. I do not know how these devices ever got onto the market without some controls. Young people are being targeted with the same strategies as previously, using flavoured vaping devices to get children on board and hook them on the product.

There is now growing teen use of vaping devices. We had been really succeeding in terms of getting young people away from the whole idea of nicotine addiction. The whole strategy here is to get young children and young people addicted to nicotine via these vaping devices. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, CDC, has always been the leader in terms of research and work in public health generally. It is sending out alarm signals and is producing an advisory saying to people not to use vaping devices. I accept there are complications in terms of the use of THC in some of the devices in the United States, and the vitamin E acetate as well. The very fact that 1,000 people have had lung injuries, including young people of 22 and 23 years, and 19 deaths have occurred, should really send alarm signals here. This is a global epidemic fuelled by a massive, resourceful industry and we need far more urgency in our national response to it than has been evident to date.

I absolutely agree that the fact that the tobacco industry is involved in producing, marketing and selling this equipment is a cause for concern. It does appear to me as well that young people are being targeted through advertising, through flavoured devices and products and through colours. It has all the hallmarks of what we saw before with flavoured cigarettes, the type of advertising that was carried out, alcopops, all of those things. The Deputy's concerns are well placed. It is a matter that we need to examine, and I agree we need to examine it with more urgency than has been the case in the past. I will speak to the Minister for Health and the chief medical officer and ask them to look at that scientific advice and assess where we need to go from here.