Fahey opposition raises fears for smoking ban
The private call for a compromise on the issue by Minister for Labour Affairs Frank Fahey casts doubts over the policing of the ban as he has a specific role in its implementation.
In tandem with the total ban on workplace smoking, Mr Fahey is charged with changing the law to place the onus on employers to protect their workers from passive smoking thereby making it easier to enforce the ban.
Along with Minister for Health Micheál Martin, Mr Fahey is effectively the co-sponsor of the smoking ban. Previously, he publicly backed it to the hilt.
Yesterday, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern said the ban was going ahead, irrespective of internal Fianna Fáil opposition to the proposal and the Progressive Democrats also gave their full backing to the planned ban.
As Minister of State at the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Mr Fahey is also in charge of the Health and Safety Authority the State agency responsible for planning the implementation of the smoking ban.
Mr Fahey is supposed to place additional responsibilities on employers to protect their workers by adding environmental tobacco smoke to a list of carcinogens banned in the workplace later this year. This would force employers to enforce the ban, as the failure to protect workers from tobacco smoke could be used as evidence of negligence in compensation cases taken by employees. According to Mr Fahey's spokesperson, the minister was unavailable for comment yesterday, despite the fact that he spoke in Leinster House yesterday and was scheduled to attend an official function in Finglas, Co Dublin, last night.
At the Fianna Fáil parliamentary party meeting on Tuesday night, Mr Fahey, along with fellow junior minister Pat 'The Cope' Gallagher, told Mr Martin he would like to see a compromise. Yet, back in January, Mr Fahey launched the expert report on the health effects of environmental tobacco smoke which led to the ban on smoking in the workplace and in May he fully advocated the proposal. "The evidence is there for all to see passive smoking is a very real and present threat to health. There is general consensus among the international scientific community that ETS (environmental tobacco smoke) in the workplace increases the risk of heart disease among non-smokers and increases their risk of lung cancer by approximately 20%. This ban will come into force next year.
"The question is not about whether it will, but how it can be implemented and enforced, and we will listen to the views of all parties who have an interest in this issue," Mr Fahey said at the time.
