Martin's delight at drop in smoker numbers

The Minister for Health, Micheál Martin, has said the number of people who have given up smoking in the last few months is an outstanding achievement.

The Minister was reacting to the findings of a survey that show 7,000 smokers who contacted the National Smokers' Quitline have given up, and almost 10,000 more callers have cut down on the amount they smoke.

Mr Martin said there has never been such a dramatic decline in the number of people smoking as there has been in the past few months.