{"id":25205,"date":"2025-07-02T11:04:16","date_gmt":"2025-07-02T11:04:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/?p=25205"},"modified":"2025-07-02T11:04:21","modified_gmt":"2025-07-02T11:04:21","slug":"ireland-has-taken-its-eye-off-the-ball-on-smoking-warns-addiction-specialist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/post\/ireland-has-taken-its-eye-off-the-ball-on-smoking-warns-addiction-specialist\/","title":{"rendered":"Ireland has \u201ctaken its eye off the ball\u201d on smoking, warns addiction specialist"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/div>\n

Ireland has lost focus on tackling smoking while intensifying efforts to restrict vaping, a leading addiction specialist has said.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr Garett McGovern, a GP and Medical Director at the Priority Medical Clinic in Dundrum, says the national conversation has become increasingly hostile towards vaping, even though smoking remains a far greater health threat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A polarising debate<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve really gone to war now on vaping,\u201d he said. \u201cWe haven\u2019t really gone to war on tobacco, but we have on vaping, and I just think that it\u2019s a very polarising debate now,\u201d he told Ireland\u2019s Midwest Radio. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019ll be honest with you, it really does polarise people. [Smoking has] not been forgotten, obviously, but it\u2019s not getting the attention it needs.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In response to figures showing a 30 per cent rise in 15 to 24-year-olds vaping in Ireland in 2023, Dr McGovern said the health risks associated with vaping are nowhere near those of smoking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He stressed that diseases like lung cancer and strokes are not caused by vaping, but by cigarette smoking. He added that while vaping should be monitored, it remains a far less harmful alternative for those trying to quit tobacco.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His latest remarks follow similar warnings made in October, when he criticised government moves to ban disposable vapes. Speaking to Filter magazine<\/a> at the time, Dr McGovern said Health Minister Stephen Donnelly was ignoring evidence that disposable vapes are widely used by adults trying to quit cigarettes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A \u201cbig mistake\u201d <\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Banning them to protect children would be a \u201cbig mistake\u201d, he warned, arguing that \u201cthere is a huge danger that [former] smokers who use these products will return to smoking.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While Dr McGovern said he supports regulation, he argues that the current strategy risks undermining harm reduction and failing the very people public health policies are meant to protect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He pointed to the failure of Australia\u2019s restrictive approach to vaping<\/a>, which has led to an out of control illicit market. He said: \u201cWho suffers the most in all this? The smoker trying to quit.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Irish premier brands vaping \u201cevil\u201d<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Earlier this month, Irish Taoiseach (prime minister) Miche\u00e1l Martin branded vaping as \u201cevil\u201d<\/a> and \u201cthe revenge of Big Tobacco\u201d as he called for \u201cthe strongest possible measures\u201d to restrict its use.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a high-profile speech at the World Conference on Tobacco Control in Dublin, Martin claimed the rise of vapes was part of a deliberate strategy by the tobacco industry to \u201cget nicotine back on the agenda.\u201d He called its marketing tactics, particularly towards young people, \u201cdisgraceful.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAll the same issues we had to deal with in respect to cigarettes, we have to deal with vaping,\u201d he said, adding that significant new restrictions on sales and packaging would come into force in early 2026. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Significant\u2019 new restrictions coming<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

 \u201cWe will have significant restrictions coming in next February as a result of legislation passed by the last government,\u201d he said. Measures will include limits on sales, packaging regulations, and bans on pop-up vape shops.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In February, retailers in Ireland were hit with a new licence fee<\/a> for selling vapes. Shops wishing to sell vapes are now hit with an annual charge of \u20ac800, and a further fee of \u20ac1,000 if they sell tobacco. Nicotine pouches are currently excluded from the legislation.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In October, the Irish government announced a major new levy of 50 cents per millilitre<\/a> (ml) of e-liquid as part of its annual budget. The tax is far above the European average of \u20ac0.10 to \u20ac0.30, and adds \u20ac1.23 to the cost of a typical vape in Ireland. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Martin\u2019s comments sparked backlash from public health experts, who warned that conflating vaping with smoking undermines harm reduction and could push smokers back to cigarettes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the same event, WHO director general Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus echoed concerns about the tobacco industry\u2019s role, describing vapes as part of its wider effort to \u201cprofit from addiction, disease and death.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Consumer group the World Vapers\u2019 Alliance staged a protest at the conference, accusing global health leaders of excluding nicotine users from key policy conversations.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ireland has lost focus on tackling smoking while intensifying efforts to restrict vaping, a leading addiction specialist has said.\u00a0 Dr Garett McGovern, a GP and Medical Director at the Priority Medical Clinic in Dundrum, says the national conversation has become increasingly hostile…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":990002,"featured_media":25211,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[344,334,343,186],"slider":[],"class_list":["post-25205","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-australia","tag-global","tag-ireland","tag-nicotine"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25205","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/990002"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25205"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25205\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25217,"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25205\/revisions\/25217"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25211"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25205"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25205"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25205"},{"taxonomy":"slider","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/slider?post=25205"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}