Darragh's Soapbox: Raising the smoking age to 21
Jamie Dundun gives his views. All Photos: Joe Evans
A proposal for legislation was approved recently that will increase the age of sale of tobacco to 21.
Ireland will be the first country in the EU to introduce this measure, continuing our tradition of leadership in tackling smoking rates, which began with the ban on indoor smoking in 2004.
Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly described the legislation as ‘a tough new measure’, which is designed to accelerate the goal of reducing Ireland’s adult smoking rate to less than 5% of the population. Currently, 18% of the population over the age of 15 are smokers.
Locals in Waterford this week had their say on the new law proposal.
said: "I'm for the new legislation. People will still get their hands on cigarettes no matter what you do, you can put the age as high as you want, people will still get them. However, putting the age up to 21 probably makes people think twice about it and it’s a good idea."
Speaking on the potential downsides to the legislation, Jamie said: “It increases the likelihood of people getting involved in the black market. If you make a change like this, there will always be a hidden economy, and other people will start making money from it on the street."
added, "It’s a good thing but it won't stop people from smoking and smokers will get their older friends to buy cigarettes for them instead. If people really want to smoke they will."
A number of locals expressed a deeper concern for vapes than for traditional tobacco products.
said, “I think they should be looking at the vapes more than cigarettes because it's young teenagers that are smoking them."
added, “I think increasing the age is a good thing to do, but young kids are getting vapes now and it's ridiculous. I think it's worse than smoking because young people don't even realise how unhealthy it is."
