Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
The Clare Byrne Show on Newstalk.
With Aviva Insurance.
And to vape shops in Sligo specifically, which have been described as technicolour nicotine pushers by one councillor who wants tighter controls placed on the shops, not just in his town, but right around the country. And Fergal Neill and Fionnuala Councillor for Sligo County Council joins me on the line. Good morning to you, Fergal. Thank you for being with us.
Now, you are very dissatisfied with the vape shops in Sligo.
What's troubling you about them? with a population of 20,000, they're popping up at a rate we haven't seen in any other retail category.
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Chapter 2: What concerns are raised about vape shops in Sligo?
Now, it's the window displays which is what's troubling me, as well as their proliferation, but it's the window displays we seem to be able to control in terms of legislation. Some are worse than others, but most of these shop fronts are dressed up like cartoons. You're talking neon pinks, electric blues, cartoon characters, swirling lollipop designs in the window.
So you would walk past and you'd think it was a sweet shop or a children's party venue. So, for example, there I passed with my own child last week. She's only four years of age. She was pulling at me to bring her inside one of these shops. The window display had vapes alongside bongs. right beside a display of a very popular children's toy and rainbow-colored sweet signs.
So behind these windows, they're actually selling nicotine. So what we're seeing on our main street in Sligo is these nicotine pushers, technicolored nicotine pushers, dressed up as funhouses. And they're sitting on our streets, which is near our schools, where our children and early teens congregate.
You call them nicotine pushers, but they're legal. Do you know what I mean? They're perfectly entitled to do what they're doing.
100%, Clare, 100%. But if Willy Wonka was selling nicotine to children, this is exactly what the shop front would look like. And I'm not asking anybody. As you say, it is legal. Adults are entitled to make their own decisions. But the targeted marketing towards children is disgraceful. So if you're selling a legal product, it doesn't give you the right to market it at underage children.
And that's what the signage is clearly doing. So we regulate pub signage. We regulate bookmaker signage. But somehow until now, premises selling nicotine to young people have been given a free pass on how to present themselves. And I feel that's a gap we need to close and we don't need to wait on legislation to catch up here.
Right. So how do you do it without legislation?
Yes. Yeah. Very good question. I brought this motion up in Sligo County Council and the local authorities have powers over signage. such as size, illumination, colour and design. So, we set the standards for our shopfront presentation. So, the question isn't whether we have the tools, it's whether they've been enacted.
Now, since I brought the motion up in the Sligo Chamber, the Council have committed to undertaking an audit of all the vape shops in town and have confirmed they have powers of enforcement on this matter. Now, we got some local press on this issue in Sligo last week, and within a few days, the worst offender had removed the shopfront signage.
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Chapter 3: How do vape shop displays attract children?
They knew it was wrong and they just thought nobody would call them out on it.
Just on the wider issue, I mean, you mentioned that there's six in Sligo Town. You have a population of 20,000. I think a lot of people listening to this would say that they feel that there are more vape shops than anything else in towns right around the country. What can be done nationally about that?
Yes, we've been in touch with the Minister of Health on that. There is a bill from the Minister at the very first stage. So hopefully that will see a clamp down on the proliferation of shops. We did ask the question of Cyber County Council and there was nothing within their development plan. to require planning permission to open with an existing or former retail unit.
So I think that's something we do need to look at that, legislating, separating retail, normal standard retail, from vape shops. I think that's something we certainly need to do because Claire, we're spending millions on town centre first initiatives.
public realm upgrades, streetscape enhancements, trying to make our towns beautiful, trying to make them places where people want to visit, shop and live. And then you walk down the main street and you have the shop front that looks like a nightclub crossed with a sweet shop. And it's a real blight.
What you want, Fergal, is a bakery or a gift shop or something that looks beautiful on your street that you want to go into that will attract shoppers into the town, right?
Yes.
100%. And these local business owners who do invest in tasteful, well-presented shop fronts, they shouldn't have to compete for the character of their street with a premises that looks like it's designed to sell sweets to children, but it's actually pushing nicotine.
And so do you think, given what has happened since you brought this up, that there is a local appetite for change and then a national appetite as well to clamp down on the number of these shops and how they're run?
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