Madam, - The proposed ban on smoking in pubs is an attempt to buck the market. Like all attempts to buck the market it will either fail or come at an unacceptably high price.
In this country there is an enormous demand for public places where people can drink and smoke at the same time. People will accept a ban on smoking in aeroplanes, buses, restaurants and cinemas. But they will not easily accept a ban in pubs, because pubs are where people specifically go to have a hedonistic experience.
There are myriad ways in which the issue of bar workers' health could be addressed, but the anti-smoking lobby will not consider them. This is because their real objection is to people whose top priority is something other than longevity. In the end everyone dies, and nobody has a moral obligation to prolong his or her life to a stage when most of its pleasures can no longer be enjoyed.
Puritans have always had it in for smokers. But our Minister for Health is about to discover that the god of revelry will always have a home in this merry corner of the world called Ireland! - Yours, etc.,
BRIAN BARRINGTON, Dalkey, Co Dublin.
Madam, - If the Government is so concerned about protecting its citizens from the harmful effects of smoke in the workplace, why does the same principle not apply to children in their own homes?
In pubs, restaurants and clubs, we have a choice as to whether or not we will work, eat or drink in these establishments; but unfortunately the same choice is not afforded to children living at home or travelling in cars with parents who smoke. - Yours, etc.,
KATHY HEELAN, Brooklawn Avenue, Blackrock, Co Dublin.