The political ineptitude displayed by the Minister for Health, Mr Martin, in bringing forward regulations to ban smoking in the workplace is cause for concern. The Minister and his Department have been made to look foolish by interests that are determined to protect their profits, with no regard for public health.
Last year, Mr Martin introduced regulations banning the advertising of tobacco products and various measures controlling their sale, only to have them struck down by the High Court. On that occasion, the tobacco industry took the successful court action. This time, the vintners are threatening litigation.
In such circumstances, the least that might have been expected from Mr Martin was painstaking preparation, clarity of intent and the requisitioning of sound legal advice. Instead of that - and on an issue where about 60 per cent of the electorate support him - the Minister has been forced into a defensive position. A delay in making regulations caused a postponement of the original start date. And last minute consultations with the Attorney General, Mr Rory Brady, brought about further changes. Having announced a blanket ban on the use of tobacco in the workplace, the Minister is now preparing to bring new regulations to Cabinet this week. And, because the EU Commission must be given three months notice of such changes in order for them to be legal, the introduction of a ban on smoking will be delayed. The matter has been further complicated by the need to give legislative effect to a declaration by the Health and Safety Authority that secondary smoke is a carcinogen.
There are those within Fianna Fáil who are quietly pleased by Mr Martin's discomfiture. Having supported the hospitality sector in resisting a ban on smoking, some backbenchers resented the plaudits the high-profile Minister received when he took a firm line at the party's ard-fheis. At the same time, a number of ministers were unhappy at the way the matter was handled at Cabinet. They would have liked to modify some of the more politically sensitive regulations. Last Thursday's decision to exempt hotel bedrooms from the new regulations may now be extended to B & Bs. That concession will help to reduce opposition from within the hospitality sector. Other changes, permitting smoking under controlled circumstances in prisons and Garda cells, and in psychiatric hospitals, nursing homes and hospices, are regarded as understandable and necessary.
But the late changes suggest ministerial weakness. Exactly a year ago, Mr Martin proposed to ban smoking in pubs and licensed premises "only when food was being served". However, a report on the damage passive smoking causes to public health changed all that. Rather than leave itself open to multi-million euro litigation if it did not protect the health of workers, the Government took action. Early this year, it agreed to ban the use of tobacco in the workplace from January, 2004. That was a correct decision. It should be implemented with no further dithering.