10 years after smoking ban, Martin questions Coalition’s commitment
Writing in today’s Irish Examiner on the 10th anniversary of the introduction of the ban, Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin said the 10c hike on a 20-pack of cigarettes in October’s budget was “derisory” against a backdrop of cuts totalling €666m in the health service.
Mr Martin also hit out at the meeting last year between Taoiseach Enda Kenny and the Irish Tobacco Manufacturers Advisory Committee, which, he said, “ran the risk of suggesting tacit endorsement of the tobacco industry”.
However, a spokesman for the Government said he rejected any assertion that it was not committed to winning the war against smoking.
“The evidence is clear from [Health Minister James] Reilly’s drive to introduce plain packaging on cigarette packs and to make it illegal to smoke in cars when accompanied by children,” the spokesman said.
The actions of Mr Martin and Dr Reilly to combat tobacco use were lauded on Newstalk yesterday by Jeffrey Wigand, the tobacco industry whistleblower whose actions inspired the movie The Insider.
Dr Wigand was fired after revealing that the company he worked for was adding a chemical to nicotine to make it taste better and easier to inhale.
Dr Wigand described Mr Martin’s decision to push through the smoking ban as “a remarkable constellation of the stars”.
He said Ireland had effectively “set the stage” for other countries to follow suit and that Dr Reilly was taking the war against tobacco “several steps further”.
Figures supplied by the HSE record 251 successful prosecutions for violation of the smoking ban since 2004 out of 262 cases taken. Of these, 225 related to licensed premises. Calls to the compliance line have dropped dramatically, from 3,121 in 2004 to just 175 last year.
The HSE said the approximate 7% fall in smoking prevalence rates in 10 years equates to a reduction in actual smokers of more than 100,000 in that period.
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