Letters to the Editor: Medical specialists back TD's call for generational ban on tobacco
Irish public health specialists have backed the call by Cork North Central TD Colm Burke for a generational smoking ban, as reported in the 'Irish Examiner' last week. Picture: iStock
We welcome TD Colm Burke’s call for the Government to “get serious” about a generational ban on tobacco sales in Ireland and commend the view that it’s time for Ireland to lead again on tackling tobacco-related harm — ‘TD calls for minister and HSE to ‘get serious’ about a total ban on smoking’ ( , May 31).
This conversation could not come at a more important moment. Ireland’s 2004 workplace smoking ban was a landmark.
Smoking prevalence fell from 27% to 19% in the following decade. But this progress has since stalled.
Every week, almost 1,000 people are hospitalised and 100 die from smoking-related illness. Controlling harm is no longer enough — it is time to end it.
We have eliminated the root causes of other preventable harms, like lead, asbestos, and smallpox. Tobacco warrants the same resolve.
The UK will ban tobacco sales to anyone born after January 1, 2009, moving the next generation out of harm’s way. This is an inflection point our political leaders must seize. Why should our next generation in the Republic of Ireland be afforded less protection from the tobacco industry’s deadly products than their fellow islanders in the North?
The public is ready with eight in 10 supporting a phase-out of tobacco sales entirely. The Government has the mandate, the obligation, and the means to act.
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We must be clear-eyed about tobacco industry interference. With more than 100m packs sold annually in Ireland, it will resist change and lobby aggressively to survive. Our political leaders must put public health before tobacco industry profits.
As doctors in specialty training in public health medicine in Ireland, we want to be the last generation of public health professionals still advocating for tobacco control.
We call on the Government to introduce tobacco-free generation legislation without delay. Ireland led the world in 2004. It is time to lead again, and to make illness and deaths from tobacco part of our history, not our future.
Climate minister Darragh O’Brien professes to have a lot of regard for Ryanair’s Michael O’Leary, who while undoubtedly successful, is head of the most polluting airline in Europe [Ryanair denies this]. Mr O’Brien expresses no qualms about Ryanair’s emissions having increased by two thirds over the last 10 years, and he is fully in favour of ending the passenger cap at Dublin Airport.
This at a time when every other sector is being asked to reduce their emissions, and when we are forecast to fall far short of our emission reduction targets for 2030.
And this is the same minister who at Cop25 last November declared “meaningful ambition ... (on climate) ... the most critical issue of our time”.
We know the current rate of warming globally is faster than any change in the last 22,000 years. It is a rate seen only before major extinction events.
Our future prosperity and that of humanity depend on the choices we make now about limiting emissions.
We need the minister to treat this like the emergency it is, and stop giving aviation a free pass to continue damaging our climate.
When Ireland transposed GDPR into Irish law, it tipped the scales in such a way that it protects civil servants and hinders the right for the public interest and puts a blindfold over the Freedom of Information laws which were already in place. It ignored section 6 (e), which relates to the ‘Public Interest’ right to know.
This means that the public has to pay expensive fees to solicitors for information which should already be accessible through the public domain. This is not the case in other EU countries like Denmark, where you even have Find Ejeren (Find the Owner), a dedicated app that links directly to official Danish registers to retrieve contact information of property and land, an app which tells you who owns a particular property, etc.
The purpose of the EU data protection law is to protect individual citizens’ private information from misuse by malicious actors. This is understandable in a time of growing money scams, identity fraud, and mainstream media’s pursuit of sensational headlines, not to mention social media trolls. GDPR was never meant to prevent the public from finding out information which would have been previously in the public domain, such as the right of the public to inspect the electoral register and having a transparent social housing list.
Taxpayers should have the right to know the contact details for owners of property which is a cause of anti-social behaviour. They should also have details of contracts that involve public money without having to spend money on solicitors. The Galway public should have known how the initial contract was made in the decision to move from Galway City Hall from city centre to Crowne Plaza, Mervue, which will inconvenience many of its service users. Our reps, the city councillors, should have been consulted first before any talks were held with the developers.
All initial meetings between higher civil servants, developers and contractors involving large sums of public monies should be recorded and open to the public scrutiny when contracts are finalised.
GDPR laws should not override the public interest and were never meant to employed in this way.
We are regularly treated to high-minded rhetoric about putting “children first” in Irish society. The State even went so far as to enshrine this promise in the Children First Act 2015.
!["Every June, we ritualistically subject our young people to a Leaving Certificate format that suggests the Department of Education never actually read the [Children First Act] legislation.' Stock picture: PA](/cms_media/module_img/10218/5109240_4_articleinline_PA-49006269_1_.jpg "\"Every June, we ritualistically subject our young people to a Leaving Certificate format that suggests the Department of Education never actually read the [Children First Act] legislation.' Stock picture: PA")
Yet, every June, we ritualistically subject our young people to a Leaving Certificate format that suggests the Department of Education never actually read the legislation.
The current system demands that students cram two full years of curriculum into three weeks of high-stakes, sweat-inducing exams.
This does not evaluate intelligence or deep understanding. It evaluates a student’s ability to act as a temporary hard drive, storing information just long enough to dump it onto an exam booklet before formatting. Forcing teenagers into this level of extreme, concentrated psychological distress is akin to institutional child abuse.
Worse still, this entire trauma is fuelled by a ruthless CAO points system. The race for points has become a distorted marketplace driven purely by supply and demand rather than any genuine reflection of a student’s ability, aptitude, or actual interest in a career path.
If we genuinely want to move from “children first” rhetoric to reality, we should stop treating student mental health as an acceptable casualty of a three-week memory Olympic games. It is well past time to trade this archaic format for a modern system of continuous assessment.
As National Carers Week takes place across Ireland between June 8 and June 14, it offers an important opportunity to recognise the extraordinary contribution carers make to our communities every day.
As people live longer and more choose to remain in their own homes, the demand for homecare services continues to grow. Behind every person living independently at home is often a carer providing not only practical support, but also companionship, dignity, and reassurance to both individuals and their families.
Meeting this growing demand will require more than simply creating new jobs. It will require recognising carers for the skilled and compassionate professionals they are, supporting their development, and encouraging more people to consider careers in care.
Initiatives such as referral and recognition programmes can play an important role in helping to attract new talent into the sector while rewarding existing carers for the vital work they do. At a time when care providers across the country are working to recruit and retain staff, it is important that we continue to find innovative ways to support the workforce that supports so many others.
National Carers Week is a reminder that carers are at the heart of independent living for thousands of people across Ireland. Their contribution deserves not only our gratitude, but our continued investment and support.
The idea of staging the 2027 National Hurling League (NHL) final in Limerick on Tuesday, September 14, has gone down like a lead balloon amongst the counties who will be participating in Division 1A of the NHL next year.
I agree the staging of the Ryder Cup in Adare next year is a huge boost to tourism and Ireland Inc’s ability to host world class events here. I doubt however the “promotion value” of such a game to the GAA overall. Soccer and rugby games including international fixtures have been staged at GAA venues in recent years but I have yet to see what real, long-term benefits such games have yielded.
Of course we hear about the ‘wow’ factor that our top class facilities generate, true, but eaten bread is soon forgotten. The suggestion of a Railway Cup type game in Limerick in September 2027 should be investigated. Since the split season came in, the certainty of fixtures for club players cannot be interfered with. Nevertheless an all star exhibition game featuring players whose clubs are willing to release them for such a game should be looked at.
JP McManus has been a great friend and benefactor to sport in Ireland and he is to be lauded for his continuing largesse. Maybe the GAA should make a reciprocal ‘thank you’ gesture to JP.
Why not put up a GAA Ryder Cup trophy for the game and consider providing a decent springtime sun holiday for the hurlers participating. Then the fixture would have a bit more pulling power attendance-wise.
