Fianna Fáil TD wants to create “smokefree generation”

Fianna Fáil TD Malcolm Byrne is introducing legislation in the Dáil which he says will create a “smokefree generation.”

Byrne’s private members’ bill in the Dáil will prohibit the sale and supply of tobacco products, nicotine products and nicotine inhalation products to persons born on or after 1 January 2009 (thus turning 18 on or after 1st January, 2027).

The legislation would establish a rolling age restriction, ensuring that the specified cohort will never be legally permitted to purchase such products over their lifetime.

Similar measures were introduced in the United Kingdom earlier this year; a similar measure was introduced in New Zealand in 2022 by then-Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern but was then rolled back by the current conservative government.

Byrne said that introducing the legislation was important, as about 100 people die and around 1000 are hospitalised every week due to smoking-related illnesses; the Wicklow-Wexford TD said that smoking costs the state in excess of €10 billion each year in healthcare and welfare costs.