‘Towns around Ireland have a proliferation of them’: Coalition to crack down on vape shops through planning lawsMr Martin said local authorities must now look at “the multiplicity of vape shops on a given street in different towns” and this could be addressed from a “planning perspective”. Wed, 09 Sep, 2026 – 07:26Elaine Loughlin
The Taoiseach wants to clamp down on the number of vape shops through planning laws and has indicated strong support for a complete ban on vapes and nicotine pouches.
Micheál Martin has described vapes as “the revenge of big tobacco”, stating that it is “depressing” that after making positive strides around tobacco-related cancers, vapes and tobacco pouches are now “coming around the back door”.
It comes after the HSE’s national drug treatment centre lab found substances linked to “serious physical and mental health harms”, including psychosis, loss of consciousness, and severe intoxication in several vapes.
Concerns have also been raised around the mislabelling of vape products sold in shops and online, as research found substances were not displayed on the packaging.
Mr Martin said local authorities must now look at “the multiplicity of vape shops on a given street in different towns” and this could be addressed from a “planning perspective”.
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“This was done before in relation to other types of shops in the past. It can be challenging, but it needs to be looked at,” he said.
The issue was discussed at length at the Fianna Fáil think-in after drugs minister Jennifer Murnane O’Connor briefed party colleagues on measures she is working on to curb the use of vapes and restrict the number of shops in towns around the country.
“The view this morning of the parliamentary party was that there should be a limit, because a number of deputies said in some streets and towns around Ireland you have a proliferation of them. From an architectural presentation and aesthetic point of view alone, that’s not very good, and so there needs to be some control of that.
“Then there’s the issue of vapes themselves and what they contain and the substances,” Mr Martin said.
Asked if he would favour an outright ban on vapes, Mr Martin said: “In my view, products like that that are damaging to health, we should deal with in as strong a manner as possible.”
The Taoiseach also indicated that nicotine pouches, which have seen global sales increase six-fold since 2020 due to “aggressive promotion” by tobacco companies and legal loopholes, should be outlawed.
New legislation is being prepared to ban sales of the small sachets which are filled with usually laboratory-made nicotine, flavourings and other chemicals, to under-18s.
Pointing to the positive public impacts of measures to address smoking, Mr Martin said: “It’s depressing to see that coming around the back door, you have the nicotine pouches, you have the vapes, which are originally marketed as ‘helping you get off the cigarettes,’ But Dr [Anthony] Fauci and others are telling people, and the peer evidence out there is that they are very damaging, maybe even more than cigarettes.
“In many instances, we don’t know what’s in them; they’re damaging to lungs, and these are serious issues for society,” he said.
The HSE last month revealed that out of 76 vapes or vape juice products that had been analysed this year, 28 contained HHC or related compounds such as semi-synthetic cannabinoids.
Eight contained potent synthetic cannabinoids while 10 had an acetate-containing compound linked to lung disease. A dozen had cannabis or related compounds, while 41 contained CBD.
Mr Martin also reiterated his belief that there should be an outright ban on sunbeds.
He had previously stated that sunbeds are as harmful as passive smoking and asbestos and should be outlawed.
The new Coalition Against Sunbeds was set up earlier this year, to lobby for a ban on sunbeds which they say would help save lives by decreasing risk factors for melanoma, and save the taxpayer around €9.7m a year in costly treatments.
The coalition includes the Irish Cancer Society, the Irish Skin Foundation, Melanoma Support Ireland, the Irish Association of Dermatologists, the Irish College of GPs, Breakthrough Cancer Research, and the Marie Keating Foundation.
The group has warned that the number of people who will be diagnosed with melanoma is set to double by 2045.
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