Eamonn Maloney (Dublin South West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank the delegates for their strong contributions. While I have one question, I must, first, state that although I have never met Professor Clancy before, I have been around long enough to remember his convincing broadcasts with Pat Kenny during the years. Speaking as a former smoker, I used to switch him off or change the dial when he went on air. He used to broadcast twice a year or something like that and I always got the impression that Pat Kenny was like-minded and had serious questions about nicotine. Professor Clancy eventually got to me; I went cold turkey and, as Martin Luther King would have said, I am free at last. Some people may have alluded to my question, but I have never seen evidence or substantial research on the reason the practice of smoking is so strong in working-class communities, as distinct from middle or upper-class communities, where people hardly smoke at all. Is such evidence available?