Workers may pay for loss of nerve

PUBLIC confidence in Health Minister Micheál Martin’s ability to deliver the controversial ban on smoking in the workplace is visibly waning following his last-minute decision to exempt hotel bedrooms, hospices, psychiatric hospitals and nursing homes from the legislation.

People can be forgiven for viewing this as a climbdown just a fortnight after signing the new smoking regulations into law. Prisons, garda station cells and outdoor workplaces had already been exempted.

The question being asked is how many other aspects of the anti-smoking package will the Government change on the pretext of avoiding legal challenges.