The Irish Commissioner for Health and Consumer Protection, Mr David Byrne, said yesterday that he did not expect that the EU would try to impose an Irish-style smoking ban on the rest of the Union, even though he would like to see it happen.
He told a media seminar on health and consumer protection in the enlarged EU that the Irish smoking ban had been remarkably successful since its introduction on March 29th.
He said a European person dies prematurely every second of the day because of tobacco, a total of half a million people a year, and he had headed up a campaign to dissuade young people from taking up smoking.
"I understand that in Ireland there is 79 per cent support for the ban on workplace smoking, which was fully backed by the unions and is being well observed," he said.
Mr Byrne said that even if the Commission had the power to bring in such legislation for the whole of Europe, he believed that for cultural and other reasons the issue of bringing such legislation should be left to national governments.
"To introduce it from Brussels might smack of Big Brother. It would be better if it happened from the bottom up. There are cultural differences around smoking in the Union and local politicians can best interpret those," he said.
The Commissioner said he would love to see Irish-style legislation throughout Europe because he regarded the issue of a smoke-free environment as a human right.
Mr Byrne said he was "not very optimistic" about finding a solution to the animal transport regulations following the meeting of farm ministers in Luxembourg on Monday.
He said there was so much intransigence involved between the northern and southern states that it would be very difficult to find a solution to the problem.
He said the main difficulty with the current legislation was that it was not being enforced by member-states and fines being imposed on transporters for cruelty were very small.
"We have decided to leave the issue for the time being and perhaps revisit in June or July," he said.
However, the Commissioner was much more positive on the issue of giving the OK for the sale of BT11, the genetically-modified sweet corn, for which an application has been made by an American company.
He said the matter was now back for decision with the Commission.