UK Passes Bill Introducing Generational Smoking Ban – Should Ireland Follow Suit? - 23/04/2026

The UK parliament has approved legislation that will ban anyone born after 2008 from ever legally buying tobacco.When the bill is written into law next week, people born on or after 1 January 2009 will be prohibited from purchasing tobacco products.This will also give ministers new powers to regulate tobacco and other nicotine products (including vapes), including their flavours and packaging.Ministers have said the new law will hopefully create a “smoke-free generation”.The UK isn’t the only country to push for a generational smoking ban – the Maldives became the first to introduce the measure last year.This got us thinking about whether a similar measure of this kind should be considered elsewhere, including Ireland.We were joined on The Agenda this morning by Luke Clancy, General of the TFRI (Tobacco Free Research Institute Ireland), to get his thoughts on this.We also found out how listeners feel about this and whether this should be brought into Ireland too Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.