Sir, – With reference to the letter from Clive Williams (September 30th), he begins by saying, “If Ireland is to become a smoke-free society”.
The answer to that is, of course, that the electorate never voted for this and it is something that is highly unlikely to happen also as long as adults freely choose to light up.
Mr Williams bemoans the sight of smokers standing outside their places of employment and is implying that a ban on this would stop them from doing it. But those people do not wish to be there and they never voted for the law that forced them into the street in the first place.
There is neither medical nor scientific justification for any ban on smoking outdoors. Instead, these calls come from smug moral high-grounders who would like to impose their version of morality on all of us.
Mind you, in these austere days as the taxes pile up, isn’t it nice to see that there is somebody with nothing else to worry about than the sight of people relaxing outdoors. – Yours, etc,
JOHN MALLON,
Mayfield,
Cork.