Threadbare support for under-fire smoking offender in home turf

EVEN within the ranks of Fine Gael in his Waterford constituency yesterday, support for John Deasy’s defiance of the smoking ban was thin on the ground.

One of the party’s longest-serving county councillors Nora Flynn said the ban is now the law of the land whether they like it or not, and Mr Deasy knew full well when he decided to light up in the members’ bar in the Dáil.

A smoker, Cllr Flynn, whose husband is also a leading publican in Cappoquin, said people in public life have a duty to give example and to lead by it.