The Minister for Health, Mr Martin, is failing to deliver on his promise to make this State a tobacco- free society. Two years on, punctuated by sporadic assurances that the Minister was absolutely committed to eradicating this lethal addiction, and the promised legislation languishes - without having received a second reading - in the Seanad. Two winters have passed in which half of all patients admitted to overcrowded Irish hospitals have suffered from smoking- related illnesses. And about 15,000 people have died.
The first anti-smoking conference organised by the Office of Tobacco Control took place in Dublin yesterday and was addressed by a number of prominent international speakers. The scourge of nicotine addiction and its lethal effect was a given. The EU Commissioner with responsibility for defending and protecting public health, Mr David Byrne, spoke about changing public attitudes to smoking. He said young people would be targeted from next year in an advertising campaign based on findings in the United States. And a climate of resistance would be created to a menace which was "deliberate, calculating and deeply cynical about the value of human life."
The Minister for Health spoke of the need to act now to control an industry which had chosen evasion, deception and, at times, illegal behaviour to protect its profits. Rather than embark on a range of radical measures himself, however, Mr Martin looked to the Minister for Finance, Mr McCreevy, to increase the price of cigarettes and exclude them from the consumer price index. Such a step, he said, would make cigarettes less available to young people; research had shown that 80 per cent of nicotine addicts were "hooked" between the ages of 14 and 18. This would seem to be something of a diversionary tactic, given that the Public Health (Tobacco) Bill, 2001, before the Seanad, will make the sale of cigarettes to adolescents a criminal offence. Proper enforcement and funding of the new law would seem to address that issue. As for higher excise charges, few would quibble with their imposition. And only historic reasons require their inclusion in the consumer price index. But changing present arrangements takes time. And lost time means wasted lives. The Government already appears to have capitulated to pressure from vintners, where a ban on smoking in public houses is concerned. The hotel and catering trades are looking for similar exemptions. The Minister's promise to legislate for a tobacco-free society rings hollow.