Baby helps Ahern mark smoking ban anniversary

Taoiseach Bertie Ahern was joined today by a baby born on the day the smoking ban was introduced, to celebrate the law’s first anniversary with a tree-planting ceremony.

One-year-old John Madigan was presented with a special birthday cake and helped the Taoiseach plant a horse chestnut in St Stephen’s Green, Dublin, to commemorate a year of the Smoke-Free at Work ban.

At the ceremony Mr Ahern said: “It’s clear that the ban on smoking in the workplace will have a positive effect not only on our national health but also on the function of our health service both now and into the future.

“On the first anniversary of the ban we can share a sense of national pride at the measure that will have significant health implications for generations to come.”

After the tree-planting ceremony Mr Ahern acknowledged that the ban was very difficult for lots of people and had changed the way they did things.

The Taoiseach said he had told other countries who were debating a ban, such as the UK, that they should allow a long lead-in time to any ban in order for people to come to grips with it.

He said he knew that it was hard for people who smoked to give up the habit.

But he said: “It’s an enormous killer – all of the research, all of the statistics, proved to me it was the right thing for the Government to do, it wasn’t just a nice idea.”

Asked if he thought there was a downside to the ban, he said: “When you see what you put in, the billions you put in to the health service and all the demands on the health service, any revenue you get from tobacco you spend 10 times over on the health service.”

Minister of State for Health and Children Sean Power, who joined the Taoiseach for the ceremony, said there were immediate and long-term health benefits to workers and the public as a result of the ban.

He said: “The reasons for the introduction of the historic smoke-free at work legislation are well documented and the fact remains that second-hand smoke is a cause of cancer and other major illnesses.

“The Government therefore had an obligation to introduce a measure which protected workers from its hazardous effects.

“I am delighted that there has been unanimous support and acceptance for the smoke-free measure, in Ireland.

“I am delighted that, one year on, we can categorically state that the ban is working and Ireland has set a new health and legislative precedent,” he said.