Almost a year into the smoking ban, it is easy to forget the lobbying and debate that preceded it. Noel Gilmore, who represented both the health and the drinks industries during 20 years in public relations, this week publishes a book about the battle for hearts and minds. Here he describes preparations for a key 'Late Late Show' encounter
Nothing is a serious issue in Ireland if it is not teased out, debated, challenged and turned into a verbal boxing match on The Late Late Show. Eighteen months ago Micheál Martin, as minister for health, set about trying to win public support for the smoking ban. The pro-ban PR team knew that getting on the Late Late can help anyone who wants to promote an idea, product, event or book. A well-prepared presentation to a vast audience is a sure-fire method of getting one's message across. But the show is a two-edged sword: if a guest gets it wrong the results can be catastrophic.
The list of people who have blown it on The Late Late Show is long and impressive. Padraig Flynn invited ridicule when, in 1999, he told Gay Byrne how hard it was to keep three homes on the €180,000 he earned each year as an EU commissioner. RTÉ's own Andy O'Mahony drew a harsh public reaction when he asked Deirdre Purcell, Byrne's biographer, whether she was sexually attracted to her subject, a jokey comment that went horribly wrong.
Martin's team had a slot on the programme to debate the smoking ban. They could have gone to TV3, which had just launched The Dunphy Show, but gambled that the Late Late would be a better bet. The minister would certainly run a risk by appearing: he might allow himself to be distracted into sticking to the agenda of the ban's opponents; alternatively, he might appear on camera to be lacking in assertiveness or commitment. But he was sure the proposed ban on smoking in the workplace would benefit public health, and he could be relied on to stay on message. His advisers were fully behind his involvement in what would undoubtedly be a heated debate. The hospitality sector had come up with a litany of arguments against the ban and was convinced its side of the story was winning increasing public support. Here was a golden opportunity to let the minister restate his belief in the ban while facing down interest groups that would use the occasion to vent their anger.
Martin's adviser Rachel Sherry, of Grayling (the public-relations company I sold my consultancy to when I retired, in March 2003), had a hectic and sometimes frustrating week in the lead-up to the show. Knowing that RTÉ's aim would be to encourage an all-out attack on the minister - the programme's reputation is based in part, after all, on providing a platform for vociferous discussion - it was important to ensure that the debate was as balanced as possible.
Finding out how many pro-ban guests the Late Late planned to invite was a major task in itself; securing places in the audience for supporters of the ban was another matter. It appeared that publicans from every corner of Ireland were pulling strings to obtain seats, so it would be difficult to accommodate many of the experts who could contribute evidence or views.
One expert Sherry felt would be particularly important was JoAnn Landers. As the hospitality side would no doubt include in its line-up a publican from New York, which banned smoking in public places in March 2003, they decided it was important to have somebody with first-hand knowledge of the effectiveness or otherwise of smoking bans in the US. But the Late Late team would only let her be in the audience rather than invite her on as a guest, although they did promise to let her speak.
In the event, the main panel consisted of four guests. On the pro side would be Martin and Dr Shane Allwright, author of the initial report recommending the all-out ban, whom Pat Kenny described as "the lady who is responsible for all this". On the anti side would be Tadg O'Sullivan of the Vintners' Federation of Ireland and Finbar Murphy of the Irish Hospitality Industry Alliance.
Straight away it was clear that some interesting choices had been imposed on both sides of the debate. For the pro-ban team the choice was relatively straightforward. The minister was in the hot seat. He would be expected to field all questions from every quarter, but he would have an authoritative expert by his side. And the audience contained Prof Luke Clancy, the leading respiratory consultant and one of the most outspoken supporters of the ban; Dr Fenton Howell, a very articulate anti-smoking campaigner; Norma Cronin, the Irish Cancer Society's specialist on smoking cessation; Maureen Mulvihill of the Irish Heart Foundation; Tom Beegan of the Health and Safety Authority; and representatives of Mandate, the union of retail, bar and administrative workers.
Probably the most significant decision about the panel was left to the hospitality side. From the outset the three main opponents of the ban had been the Irish Hospitality Industry Alliance, the Licensed Vinters' Association and the Vintners' Federation of Ireland. Publicans had been grumbling about their organisations' failure at times to deliver the clout they felt they deserved, so it was interesting that the powerful Licensed Vintners' Association, which represents Dublin publicans, was sidelined. It fell to O'Sullivan, who had the most live broadcasting experience of anybody in the Irish pub trade, and Murphy, of the relatively recently founded Irish Hospitality Industry Alliance, to fight on behalf of publicans and hoteliers.
The ban's opponents had clearly agreed their line of attack in advance. Their confrontation with the minister would be aggressive. It would aim to portray him as intransigent, out of touch and more concerned with his political future than with the damage his law would cause. The opponents of the ban would emphasise the impact of the measure on jobs and the fact that their reasonable proposals for compromise were being ignored. They would also attempt to challenge the need for a total ban when they were, they said, prepared to invest in ventilation systems that could deal with environmental tobacco smoke.
All of this had been predicted by the minister's team of advisers. His press secretary, Caitríona Meehan, had been in a series of intensive meetings with Sherry and her team in the days leading up to the Friday show.
Inevitably that week, the minister's schedule was as hectic as ever. Of all the ministerial portfolios, health is one of the most gruelling in terms of briefings, meetings and events, not to mention the normal business of managing a high-spending department. The problem for the team was to find a time when the minister could sit down with them to go through a mock question-and-answer session, which is so important in preparing for a television debate. A suitable slot did not become available until late on Friday afternoon, just hours before The Late Late Show.
Everybody realised that the debate would be an important step in cementing the resolve of the ban's many supporters and in reassuring the public that it was all about saving lives and providing a healthier environment. No doubt the programme would also be watched by Martin's Fianna Fáil colleagues, who were gathering for the following day's congress in Killarney.
The final details of the regulations were still being drafted, so the minister needed to be brought up to date. He was also briefed on the most recent research findings on ventilation and the latest opinion polls on the ban. He knew precisely where the hospitality sector would be coming from, having met a delegation earlier in the week. He now needed to place all of these arguments in context and be comfortable in his mind that, despite the aggression he was about to face, the debate would be an opportunityto win public support. The minister would therefore focus on the core message that the ban was in the best interests of workers, and he would reaffirm his commitment to it. He had expert advice to prove it was necessary, in view of the 7,000 lives lost to cancer each year and the continuing high incidence of heart disease.
The major challenge for the minister was to remain focused on his messages in the face of stern opposition. His other challenge was to persuade the hospitality sector to face up to the inevitable and help make the ban not only workable but, where possible, beneficial to them.
Out in Donnybrook, the main preoccupation for RTÉ was the battle for that night's audience. Eamon Dunphy, as TV3's upstart chat-show presenter, had kicked off the evening with a scoop: he had convinced his friend Roy Keane, Ireland's most controversial soccer star, to take part in his first live television interview since his infamous departure from the World Cup squad. Dunphy had also lined up Tony Blair's former head of communications, Alastair Campbell, to try to justify Britain's involvement in the war in Iraq. Bob Geldof was on Dunphy's guest list, too.
Kenny's line-up was equally impressive, with George Best and his former Manchester United colleague Denis Law, plus Daniel O'Donnell performing his new single. Most important, the first live television confrontation over the smoking ban assured The Late Late Show of a high-impact start that was likely to win it the biggest audience - which indeed it did.
The panel quickly laid down markers. The minister was not for turning, and he speedily set out his stall. Asked whether a blanket ban was feasible, the minister pointed out that the regulations being drafted would deal with how the ban would affect "home" situations, such as mental institutions and prisons.
Many communications professionals regarded Tadg O'Sullivan's opening foray as a tactical mistake. He was there to outline the ban's impact on publicans and challenge its interference in their livelihoods. Instead he began by condemning the health services, repeatedly suggesting that the smoking ban was designed to divert attention from their problems. The golden rule is to confine your comments to the areas in which you are an expert. For a spokesman with a commercial interest to try to make capital by offering observations on wider social, economic or political issues or on matters outside his realm of business is a sure-fire way to lose sympathy.
O'Sullivan later insisted the minister had not been listening to the arguments of the publicans, who were now particularly agitated after being ignored. In O'Sullivan's opinion, ventilation was the answer: publicans should have the option of investing in enhanced ventilation systems or going out of business, he declared. When Kenny pressed him, however, O'Sullivan could not estimate how much such a system would cost.
With cigarette-machine operators, ventilation-system manufacturers, guest-house owners, hoteliers and publicans to choose from for the first audience challenge to the minister - all of them ready to declare that the ban would cost jobs - Kenny took people by surprise by focusing on a bingo-hall operator. Siobhán Kearney, who ran a hall in Dublin, had been fined earlier in the week for letting her customers smoke. She outlined the difficulty of enforcing a ban, even among the middle-aged to elderly women who visited her bingo hall.
The Late Late team had come up with an unpredictable angle in an effort to throw the panellists, notably the minister, off guard. Martin responded that he had worked in smoky bingo halls as a youth and that there was 90 per cent compliance with existing smoking bans. The theme then changed to the ban's effect on jobs, which prompted Finbar Murphy, whose advisers had prepared him well, to stress the impracticability of aspects of the proposed ban, especially policing what went on in hotels, some of which could have 300-400 bedrooms.
Kenny invited comments from supporters of the ban. JoAnn Landers spoke first, pointing out that since smoking had been banned in workplaces in Boston, the previous May, the city had achieved 97 per cent compliance; the ban's enforcers, she said, were working closely with businesses to make it a success. Landers equated the need for a smoke-free environment with measures to protect workers from asbestos. She also made the point that the Boston ban had been largely self-policing, with non-smokers encouraging others not to light up.
Prof Clancy said it was disappointing that publicans seemed more concerned with profits than they did with their employees' health. His colleague Dr Howell added that publicans had no need to fear that their customers would revolt and cause problems. He said he believed smokers would be no less law-abiding than non-smokers.
The discussion was one of the most spontaneous and lively that had been on television for a very long time. Kenny ensured that as many people as possible got the chance to air their views, and although, by the end of the programme, there were no winners or losers, and the participants' views had not changed, everyone involved had expressed their opinions to the largest audience in Ireland.
Before giving him the last word, Kenny remarked that the minister was heading off to Killarney to "get it in the neck from the Fianna Fáil backbenchers". Martin replied that he was not worried about being unpopular and that he believed he had no choice but to implement the ban. "This is a very important health decision," he said. "I'm happy I am doing the right thing for the Irish people. I'm also satisfied that generations to come will look back and say this was the right decision."
Who won the ratings battle? Despite Eamon Dunphy's wildcat reputation and his appeal to a certain clique of celebrities, his TV3 show came off second best. The decision to debate the smoking ban on The Late Late Show was the correct one.