No compromise on smoking ban, says Martin

FIANNA Fáilers love compromise, a classic Irish solution to an Irish problem has always played a part in party discussions.

Not so anymore.

Health Minister Micheál Martin told the attentive troops at the party’s Ard Fheis in Killarney, that there was no going back on the controversial smoking in the workplace ban.

Opponents might have been hovering at every corner, but the expected screeching match never materialised.

If this was the publicly engaging story that Vintners Federation of Ireland boss, Tadg O’Sullivan would have us believe, then there was no evidence of it in the Gleneagle National Events Centre.

A crowded hall gave Mr Martin several rounds of applause, when he dug in his heels and dismissed all those rumours that a compromise was in the air.

“The health service is also, essentially, about illness-prevention,” he told delegates.

“It’s in that context we have taken steps to make the workplace safe from the killing presence of environmental tobacco smoke. Because it is a killer,” he said, and the claps sounded with gusto.

The rhetoric wasn’t new, but the response from the audience was unequivocal, with even the wavering Frank Fahey, and the chain smoking Martin Cullen, fulsome in their support.

“The workplace has to be safe. And workers in the hospitality industry are not lesser human beings than workers in any other industry,” Martin said.

The format at this Ard Fheis meant that audience questions had to be submitted to party handlers in advance, and the Minister had the last word.

Martin was always on safe ground then, but even he must have been pleased that the opposition was of the most meek variety.

First up was Tom Ahern, a cardiac surgeon in Cork University Hospital, who graphically outlined the effects of lung cancer on suffers.

“About 85% of lung cancer sufferers can only be offered hospice care. Smoking also causes strokes and heart attacks,” he said.

The next questioner was Michael Smith, who asked would ventilation cancel out the need for a full ban. Again Martin maintained his poise. “Ventilation does not take out the cancer causing agents in smoke,” he said.

Only one of the five questioners Edward Finnegan voiced an objection to the ban, and he called for a compromise. Then low voices in the crowd fleetingly described the ban as an example of Nazism and Stalinism.

But the audience reaction was muted and the Minister unbending. The greatest resistance to the ban came from a dozen members of the Irish Cigarette Machine Operators Association protesting outside.