Billy Kelleher (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail)
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I am speaking as a person who suffers from nicotine addiction and whom on occasions Professor Crown has lectured in his forthright way as to what one would say to one's children or somebody else. The message hits home and this gives me great courage to stay off cigarettes.

Obviously we should make every effort to try to discourage people from smoking. We brought in the smoking ban in the workplace, public houses, restaurants and elsewhere. It has been successful in terms of discouraging people from smoking in certain areas. I assume it has an impact on the number of people smoking. We are members of the Joint Committee on Health and Children. We should be actively encouraging support for public health policies and driving public policies to ensure we hammer home the message that cigarettes are very dangerous. Professor Crown made the point previously that if tobacco had been discovered only in the past few weeks, we would not allow it into the country and we would not allow it to be sold legally to people of a certain age. We should consider this motion.

Professor Crown states that smoking is dangerous to health. It could be dangerous to some Members' health if they had to go outside the front gates to have a cigarette. People outside are waiting for them, as inevitably happens when a Government becomes unpopular.