Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 24 February 2026
1037. Deputy Colm Burke asked the Minister for Health the plans her Department has to establish a stop vaping service, modelled on the successful QUITLINE service, to support individuals quit e-cigarettes and other novel nicotine products; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [14795/26]
View answerThe policy focus regarding vaping is on preventing youth uptake, and there are a range of ongoing legislative and non-legislative actions to achieve this. For young people who do smoke or vape, Quit 4 Youth is a specific 7-week HSE programme to get help to stop.
For adults, the HSE provides safe, effective and clinically sound stop smoking services, which are free and easy to access across the country. These services have been designed for people who smoke cigarettes and incorporate behavioural support and access to free stop smoking medicines.
The adult service is currently able to support smokers who also vape (dual-users) to quit. Stop smoking advisors do sometimes provide behavioural support to people who come to the service to stop vaping, where capacity allows. Work is ongoing to assess the level of demand and the types of support that might be safe and effective to stop vaping.
The priority in this area continues to be increasing access to life-saving stop smoking support, in line with our National Stop Smoking Clinical Guidelines. 1 in 6 adults currently smoke, and smoking causes almost 100 deaths and 1000 hospitalisations every week in Ireland. There are benefits to stopping smoking at any age.
Funding for the HSE Quit Programme has increased in recent years, from €13 million in 2021 to €21 million in 2024. This includes rolling out free stop smoking medication, doubling the number of clinics to provide behavioural support, and expanding the peer-led ‘We Can Quit’ groups.
This has led to record numbers accessing the service and significant increases in successful quit attempts.
