"Butts out" read the slogans on the Liffey boardwalk yesterday as Dublin City Council promoted a new "portable ashtray" to stop cigarette litter.
However, the Lord Mayor of Dublin, Cllr Royston Brady, used the occasion to butt in on the Government's internal debate about the proposed smoking ban.
A former hotel manager, Mr Brady predicted a "huge impact" on the hospitality industry, and accused the Minister for Health of moving too fast. "It took 10 years for New York to get where it is, but we're trying to do it in six months."
Since becoming Lord Mayor, Mr Brady has criticised Garda raids on lap-dancing clubs, and sees the smoking prohibition as part of a puritanical streak that inspired pub bans on UK stag parties. "Are we going to become the city that you can do nothing in?"
Citing comments by the Minister for Justice that gardaí would not be used to check pubs for breaches of the smoking ban, he said this was "typical", and added: "If he (Mr McDowell) is not going to enforce it, it's a non-runner anyway."
Flanked by female Dublin City Council employees who turned their backs to the cameras to reveal the slogan "Is your butt worth €125?", Mr Brady was marking the launch of a portable ashtray designed to help smokers avoid such fines for throwing cigarette ends on the street.
"If" (his word) the smoking ban goes ahead, the ashtrays may be much in demand from smokers gathering in pub doorways. But even without the ban, the streets are already under siege from cigarette ends.
The council estimates that Dubliners smoke four million cigarettes a day, and drop 20 butts every second. Smoking accounts for one-third of all the city's litter.
The free ashtrays are available throughout Dublin from public libraries, Tesco outlets and the Bus Stop chain of newsagents.
Ash Ireland's Dr Fenton Howell said: "We have a situation here where Dublin City Council are providing people with almost an incentive to smoke. We would be better off prosecuting those who litter and putting the obligation on the tobacco industry."
Green Party leader Mr Trevor Sargent added: "It sends out a totally mixed message. The Health Ministry is saying we have to make every effort to help people to get off cigarettes.
"If the lord mayor is going around saying 'have a puff, and here is an ashtray' it really doesn't make it clear where the Government is coming from."
