Cigarette vending machines to be banned in bid to stub out under-age smoking

Health Minister Stephen Donnelly said he has given the go-ahead for the vending machines – which inspectors found allow smoking regulations to be flouted – to be banished.

There is a year-long lead-in time, with the ban coming into effect in ­September next year to allow operators which depend on the machines for their livelihoods to look for alternative incomes.

It is understood that more than 4,000 vending machines selling cigarettes and vapes are in use across the country.

The aim is to cut off another source of supply to young people amid an alarming rise in vaping and concern about levels of smoking among teens and young adults after years of progress.

The ban is being imposed under the Public Health (Tobacco Products and Nicotine Inhaling Products) Act 2023, which prevents the use of self-service sale of tobacco products and nicotine-inhaling products such as e-cigarettes.

The crackdown comes weeks after the minister said he received cabinet approval to raise the age at which young people can legally buy cigarettes, from 18 to 21.

“On World No Tobacco Day we are continuing to denormalise the sale of tobacco products to make it clear that a product that kills one out of every two of its users is not like other consumer products,” Mr Donnelly said.

“We are also banning the sale of nicotine-inhaling products by self-service to further tighten the availability and the advertising of these products.”

The ban will take effect in September of next year, allowing time for all affected businesses to prepare for the change.

Under existing law, vending machines cannot take cash and instead can only be operated by the use of discs or cards obtained from staff, who are obliged to ensure they do not give the disc to anyone underage.

However, environmental health inspectors whose job is to enforce tobacco control rules, found “self-service vending machines are consistently more accessible to minors than over-the-counter sales”.

A surge in e-cigarette use among Irish teenagers continues and there is major concern these are a gateway to traditional smoking.

In 2019, a fifth of 16-year-olds were found to be using e-cigarettes, double the figure in 2015, and it is even ­higher now.

Data from 2018 showed that about one in 10 young people aged between 12 and 17 had used an e-cigarette in the last 30 days.

In the decade after the 2004 smoking ban, smoking rates here fell from 27pc to 18pc

But Ireland’s decline in smoking rates has stalled and a decade ago optimism was high that 2025 would be the year for Ireland to be tobacco-free.

The aim was for smoking prevalence to be down to less than 5pc of the population by that date.