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Ken O’Flynn TD has expressed serious concern following new figures from the HSE showing that approximately one in five retailers inspected through test purchase operations were found selling nicotine inhaling products to children.
The figures show that in 2025, 50 retailers sold vaping products to children during HSE test purchase inspections, resulting in 44 prosecutions. In 2024, 40 retailers were caught selling to children from 223 inspections carried out.
Deputy O’Flynn, who obtained the information through a Parliamentary Question to the Minister for Health, said: “These figures should concern every parent in Ireland. The law is clear. Nicotine products must not be sold to children.”
Despite that, the HSE’s own enforcement programme found that around one in five retailers tested were prepared to break the law. That failure rate actually got worse between 2024 and 2025.
Retailers who comply with the law deserve support. Those who knowingly sell nicotine products to children need to face real penalties, not just a day in court that ends with the Probation Act.
I am also seeking clarity on how many of those prosecutions resulted in actual convictions, given that the HSE does not publish outcomes where the Probation Act is applied. Parents deserve to know whether this enforcement is delivering real consequences.”
Deputy O’Flynn said he would now submit further Parliamentary Questions seeking a county-by-county breakdown of inspection figures and full details of conviction rates.
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