Martin vows to fight smoking ban challenge

Health Minister Micheál Martin has vowed to fight a legal challenge to the workplace smoking ban that has been lodged by a Cork-based hackney driver.

Liam O’Riordan is planning to challenge the ban in the High Court on the grounds that it infringes his civil liberties and constitutional rights.

Speaking about the case in Dublin today, Mr Martin said: “I’ve always said during this particular journey that there would be attempts to undermine the initiative from a lot of quarters, so it’s no surprise in that sense.

"We will be legally defending our position robustly because it’s a very strong public health measure to protect workers.”