Madam, - Is it too much to expect consistency from our esteemed Minister for Health, Mr Martinet (Oops, sorry, Mr Martin) in pursuing his proposed ban on smoking in pubs? On the one hand the Minister will, at a stroke, ban smoking in pubs from January 1st, 2004. But on the other hand, his Minister of State, Mr Noel Ahern, is currently travelling to Europe to view "Community Injection Rooms", (i.e. "shooting up rooms" to you and me), to be funded and provided at taxpayers' expense.
So one group of addicts will be facilitated in their addiction and taken off the streets, while another group of addicts (a much larger one at that) is to be thrown out on to the streets and their addiction demonised in the process. On the basis of the logic of the Minister, there is therefore a strong case to be made for "Community Smoking Rooms" to be provided in already existing "Community Drinking Rooms" (i.e. pubs).
Furthermore, the smaller group of addicts currently get free needles and methadone provided at taxpayers' expense, while the much larger group of addicts have to pay for nicotine patches, chewing gum etc. which might help them kick their habit - where is the consistency and equality of treatment in such policies?
The climate of Fagphobia which the Minister and his fellow travellers in the Health Police (they know who they are!) are currently whipping up is dangerously close to Health Fascism (a representative of the Irish Heart Foundation was heard to say on Five Seven Live last week that they wish to "stamp it out altogether" - in other words, "we'll make you healthy whether you like it or not").
The Minister is also fond of using the smoking ban on long-haul flights as an example of how smokers cope with smoking bans with little or no problem.
What the Minister fails to mention is the fact that air quality on long-haul flights has, paradoxically, disimproved since that ban was brought in. This is because the air is now only changed every 15 minutes on such flights instead of every four minutes when smoking was allowed on long-haul flights, resulting in an increase in bugs and other infectious micro-organisms on these flights, as anyone who has ever travelled on a long-haul flight in recent years will have experienced.
The Law of Unintended Effects rules, as any organisation which has tried to change will testify. . .Fagphobics beware! - Yours etc.,
TIM DUNNE, Beechwood Close, Bagenalstown, Co Carlow.