Ireland: CLIFFORD: If Government is Serious It Should go the Whole Hog and Ban Cigarettes

Source from:  Irish Independent (ie)  10/16/2013

Of all the victims of today's Budget bruising, one member of society who will attract little or no sympathy is the smoker.

It's expected the cost of cigarettes will increase marginally, though charities such as the Irish Cancer Society have called on Michael Noonan to hike the price by a whopping 60 cent per pack.

Already Ireland is the most expensive country in Europe in which to be a smoker (an average pack of 20 costs about €10 here compared with €5 in Germany) and the Government tells us that price hikes will act as deterrents – the fact that it's a vicious addiction is beside the point.

To great fanfare, Health Minister James Reilly told us recently that he wanted Ireland to be 'tobacco-free' by 2025.

If you're a smoker, you better plan on moving elsewhere because we don't want your like around here.

Indeed, in recent days, Kerry General Hospital in Tralee announced that smoking would be banned across its entire campus from January 2014.

It's the latest medical facility to go 'smoke-free' with similar bans in place at hospitals such as the Mater and St Vincent's in Dublin, Waterford Regional, Galway University Hospitals and the Mid-West Regional Hospital in Limerick.

Under a section on the Mater Hospital's website entitled 'what about the right to smoke?', we are told in no uncertain terms "there is no legal right to smoke in Irish law BUT there is a legal obligation on the hospital to provide a safe and comfortable environment for patients, staff and visitors by removing the very serious health risks associated with tobacco smoke".

The Mater provides 'free nicotine-replacement therapy' to smokers who find they can't kick the addiction during their short stay in hospital.

It wouldn't take a genius to work out that you have a right to smoke as cigarettes are sold legally in this country! If the Government is serious about stamping out the problem, why don't they consider banning cigarettes altogether? Oh, I forgot, revenues from the industry are massive and the tobacco lobby group more powerful than most.

The HSE says that 39pc of its hospitals are now smoke-free and that by 2015 every medical facility in the country will have signed up to its policy.

Attempts to stop young people starting to smoke are obviously welcomed but has anyone really thought about the patient who has smoked for most of their lives and for whom a stay in hospital can be hugely stressful? Enditem