Hypocrisy is an insult to the people

Before embarking on his crusade to ban smoking in the workplace and public houses, Minister for Health Micheál Martin should have checked to make sure that the Government’s house was in order.

It is not and it should be a matter of monumental embarrassment that the Government, through the National Pension Reserve Fund, has almost €17 million invested in three tobacco companies.

It would also explain why a Government which is single-mindedly intent on stamping out smoking in public, was reticent about backing a group of smokers in a legal action against the same tobacco companies.