Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)

It is an appalling thing. Some people wear pink coats, others wear yellow coats and others still wear white coats. Wearing a tie is a help as well, as one can wear another colour. There is nothing wrong with that.

Political correctness drives us all in a particular direction. When our children were small the thinking was just beginning to emerge that one could not buy a cowboy suit for a young boy because it was pandering to gratuitous violence, shooting and killing and that it was the wrong image to create. Generally speaking, one does not see children with cowboy suits very often. The presumption is that there would be less violence as a result but the reverse is the case. One sees gratuitous violence on television in particular but also in films in the cinema and in the media in general. Once upon a time, John Wayne would give a fellow a clip round the ear and he would fall down in the corridor and there would be nothing else from him; he never said another word. Now, the guy is beaten over the head with iron bars for an hour from all angles. I wonder how he can withstand the pressure. Of course, he is not smoking at all, that would not be PC. There is gratuitous violence and with all the political correctness we have, we have no problem or aversion to that sort of thing. It is appalling. We then worry when kids beat up other kids, or older people, attacking them in the streets and kicking them half to death. We say they are awful and they are but they have been fed a diet of that.

I do not want to promote smoking. I hold my hands up, I am not perfect and I never claimed I was. The society that claims it is perfect must look at itself again because I do not think our society is perfect. There was a certain lady in Paris who died a few years ago. She was 121 when she died, she was very long-lived, I admit. She had an astute solicitor and when she was 75 years of age she smoked, like Deputy Shane Ross, over 100 cigarettes a day, which was not a good thing. Her solicitor decided he would take equity in her house for a certain sum of money. He did this on the presumption that she would not live too long, and she should not have but she lived to be 121. Her poor, unfortunate legal adviser had passed away some ten to 15 years previously.

I do not suggest that to promote smoking but smoking is an addiction and a habit. In my case it is not; I can stop if I want to but I enjoy it. I smoke a pipe at night or when I am driving a long journey. I certainly do not step into anyone's house to smoke and I do not step out into anyone's garden to smoke. I smoke when it suits me and when I am relaxed. I do not wish to be depicted as a social outcast. I have not done anything to deserve that, and I am sure many other people feel like that. There are many people who ingest other things that are bad for them at all levels in society, not just in one area or among the lower orders but across society. One would be surprised at the amount of addiction throughout society on an ongoing basis and we do not seem to be worried about it at all.

I agree the example is not good so why do young people smoke? Young parents of teenagers must make a decision. They might suspect their children will take drugs or be in the company of people who will take drugs. They might be on the horns of a dilemma and figure out the least damaging drug. I do not know the answer to that question but it is a question young parents have to answer on a regular basis.

Everyone will tell us about the smoke filled room and the damage it does to everyone else, and I am sure it does. I do not inhale smoke so presumably I inhale in a secondary way. Perhaps I do and perhaps I do not. Has anyone ever thought about the damage done to a person's health by sitting in a room where there are no smokers but one or two people with a particular infection that is contagious? A person could get a most appalling infection such as the flu or a chest infection. I assure the House the only difference between the two is that we can see the breath that has been exhaled in a smoke filled room but we cannot see it in the other room. I am not suggesting every should get up tomorrow morning and say they will have a good smoke, that they will smoke regularly and often and it will be good for their health. It is not but there is a need for a change in the psychology applied to deter people. Shock treatment does not work and the attitude of political correctness we have adopted in this society is not helpful at all. To ostracise people and suggest they are layabouts, drop-outs and ne'er-do-wells is wrong.

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