Sale of cigarettes from vending machines set to be banned

The sale of tobacco products from self-service cigarette and vape vending machines is to be banned next year under measures being introduced by Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly.

The machines are often found in bars and nightclubs.

The ban is due to come into effect from September 2025 in order to give impacted businesses time to prepare for the change.

Stephen Donnelly said the ban was a continuation of Government policy to “denormalise” the sale of tobacco products.

“On World No Tobacco Day, I am bringing into operation further elements of our overall tobacco control strategy,” he said.

Mr Donnelly added: “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.

“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 Department of Health said the ban was a recommendation of Tobacco Free Ireland and is in line with the Programme for Government commitment to restrict the types of retailers that sell tobacco products.

However, the chairman of the Irish Cigarette Machine Operators Association said the ban will impact the livelihoods of “small, family-run businesses”.

John O’Brien said they tried to meet the Oireachtas Committee on Health multiple times to suggest alternatives to a ban but never received a response.

“We don’t promote tobacco; we don’t promote cigarettes. We offer a service to publicans, to hotels who don’t necessarily want to be dealing with tobacco and rather outsource that to the likes of ourselves,” he said.

Speaking on RTÉ’s Today with Claire Byrne, Mr O’Brien said there are around 4,000 such vending machines in Ireland and none of the association’s members have been prosecuted for selling tobacco to underage people.

Current law on the sale of tobacco products through vending machines requires the use of tokens, discs or cards obtained from staff and also requires oversight by staff.

Tokens ‘provide age control’

However, evidence from the National Environmental Health Service, the enforcement authority for the tobacco control law, shows that self-service vending machines are consistently more accessible to minors than over the counter sales.

Mr O’Brien disputes that finding, saying that the machines require tokens in order to buy tobacco products and those tokens are only obtained from the pub or hotel where the vending machines are located.

“We believe with the implementation of the token system … our machines are age controlled at the moment because we have tokens in place.

“No underage person can walk into a pub at the moment and purchase a packet of cigarettes without going to the counter and asking for a token,” Mr O’Brien said.

Despite the ban not coming into effect until next September, Mr O’Brien said vendors face “massive changes” to their business and that 90% of the members of the association “solely” rely on the sale of tobacco products.