Case study: Declan Kennedy knows all about the benefits of clean air. As the chief executive of Irish Forestry Services, his company promotes forestry investment, with the knock-on effect of encouraging the absorption of carbon dioxide and the release of oxygen back into the atmosphere.But up to the summer of 2002, Mr Kennedy also regularly exhaled cigarette fumes into the atmosphere.
"I would never have smoked more than one packet a day, but it would have been very rare that I would not have smoked almost a packet a day," he says.
As a result of his addiction, Mr Kennedy and his non-smoking wife were paying over the odds for their joint mortgage protection policy, taken out five years ago.
Paying €123.95 a month for a policy covering a €300,000 loan seemed a little steep, so a few months ago Mr Kennedy thought it would be a shrewd idea to ask his broker to shop around on his behalf and find a cheaper quote.
The move paid off. Mr Kennedy, who turned 40 last year, switched his policy from Canada Life to Irish Life, where he availed of non-smoker rates.
"I'm paying €27.50 a month now, almost €100 less," he says.
Mr Kennedy does not know all of the differences between the terms and conditions offered by the two insurers.
"In my experience, the big print giveth and the small print taketh away," he says.
Neither Mr Kennedy nor his wife has any adverse medical history. As far as he is aware, the only factor causing the loading was the fact that he smoked.
Mr Kennedy is saving well over €1,000 a year on his mortgage protection policy. When the cost of the cigarettes is included, he estimates he is saving almost €8,000 annually - a significant chunk of his income.
"You've got to keep your overheads down when you've got two children," he says. The money "just gets totally absorbed" into the family budget.
Quitting smoking wasn't easy. He tried hypnotherapy and going it alone with willpower and used smoking guru Allen Carr's approach on two occasions. Eventually, his doctor prescribed the anti-smoking drug, Zyban.
"You take one to two tablets a day for 10 days and you carry on smoking as normal but then you go, ugghh, I no longer want a cigarette. My desire to smoke had just gone," he says.
Financial incentives are not enough to make you stop, he believes.
"You have to really hate the smell of your clothes and the smell of your hair. Going into a pub is just awful," says Mr Kennedy, who hasn't been in a pub on a Friday night for over a year.
After the smoking ban comes in, he plans to make a return, saying he is looking forward to taking employees at Irish Forestry Services out for a post-work drink, without the fear of having to fork out for a major dry cleaning bill afterwards.
