Smoking ban ‘gets boost from Cullen comments’

MINISTER for Health Micheál Martin said last night that his Cabinet colleague Martin Cullen’s public objections to the smoking ban galvanised support for the proposal.

Rejecting the Minister for the Environment’s argument that the ban was importing American political correctness, Mr Martin also said smoking clampdowns were in place in many other countries.

In his first public reaction to the controversy, Mr Martin told the Irish Examiner that, after Mr Cullen’s remarks, his office was inundated with phone calls and letters from people supporting the ban.