THE TAOISEACH HAS said he wants local authorities to look at possibly restricting the “proliferation” of vape shops in local towns.

Speaking to reporters at Fianna Fáil’s think-in in Tullamore, Micheál Martin said he views the vaping industry as the “revenge of Big Tobacco” and that the use of planning should be considered to bring it under control.

Martin said that party believes local authorities should look at vapes from shops “from a planning perspective”, taking in their “impact” on a given street or a given town.

“This was done before in relation to other types of shops in the past,” Martin said.

Industry estimates say there are as many as 3,300 retailers selling vaping products across Ireland, although it’s not clear how many are specifically trading in vapes.

While the Fianna Fáil leader accepted that could be a challenging measure to adopt into council plans, he said “it needs to be looked at” given the prevalence of vape shops.

Asked by reporters if he was considering placing a limit on the number of shops in a given area, Martin said he was not being specific.

“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,” Martin said.

“From an architectural presentation, aesthetic point of view even alone, that’s not very good. And so that there needs to be some control of that.”

Martin added that vapes also contain “harmful” substances.

“To me, it’s always been the revenge of big tobacco. It has all the same hallmarks of tobacco. Go after the young, get the young addicted,” Martin said.

“In many instances we don’t know what’s in them. They’re damaging to lungs, and these are serious issues for society. And we did it in respect of smoking many, many years ago,” Martin added, referring to the smoking ban he introduced during his time as health minister in the early 2000s.

With reporting by Christina Finn in Tullamore