Cathal Crowe (Clare, Fianna Fail)

This is a very important debate. Like other speakers, it needs to be acknowledged on the record of the Dáil that it was Fianna Fáil in government that brought in the world's first ever national ban on smoking in the workplace. It was ahead of its time and many other countries have followed suit since. This debate is very timely. I wrote to the Department of Health recently. Like many Deputies, I get emails about many issues. I received an email from a man in County Clare two weeks ago. His wife has profound asthma. He cited an evening where they were in a restaurant. The meal was ruined anyway because of a cloud of horrible fruity vapour being blown their way all the time but she had an asthmatic episode afterwards and ended up in hospital, which she attributed to the fact that vaping had happened alongside them. There is no structure of rules regarding this. I know there are certain guidelines and a policy direction being taken by the Department but if one goes into restaurants, bars and other places, one will see that it is hit and miss. It requires national regulation. Some bars do not allow it while others do. Some barmen take an easier approach and some are a bit lax. The Joe Duffy show - I think we have to call it "Liveline" these days to give it its official name - featured a singer a week or two ago whose name I did not get. I do not think he is particularly famous but he is someone who has done the pub circuit in Dublin over many years singing ballads and sitting on a stool in the corner keeping people entertained. He said that in the worst of days when there were clouds of smoke billowing across the bar and the lounge, he would go home with his jacket smelling and he might have had to hang out it out to refresh it but he certainly never found himself overwhelmed by smoke. He said that when he sings in a bar where someone is vaping, he goes home feeling rotten. He knows from his vocal chords that he has been subjected to it all evening. I very much think that this needs to be dealt with.

We need to get to a point where there is prohibition in public spaces. I often bring my young children to a playground or go some place that is nice for them but the moment can be ruined very quickly when that cloud of fruity vapour billows across you. It just consumes you. It is probably worse. From a health point of view, it is not as bad as nicotine but from the point of view of being nauseated, I find it far worse.

My next point is on a slight tangent but it is relevant to the debate we are having today. I sit on the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Transport and attend its meetings religiously. Last year before the general election, we did a body of work on drivers who might be under the influence of alcohol or drugs, something that is an issue that is increasing. There is a lacuna in the legislation. If I am sitting at a bar and someone across from me is drinking pints all evening, I will not passively become drunk by any stretch of the imagination. If someone is smoking, I might get a chesty cough and the odour of smoke on my clothes but that is it. An Garda Síochána made the point that somebody in the presence of a person who is smoking cannabis will be passively inhaling that all evening and that it has come across instances where people have then failed the oral fluids test and must be brought to a Garda station for a blood test, which goes to the Medical Bureau of Road Safety for laboratory analysis, so there is a bit of a legal lacuna here. If someone is in a room where he or she is a passive smoker - I do not know if that is the correct term to use anymore but certainly he or she could be sitting 10 yd or 12 yd away from someone smoking cannabis all night - the following morning, he or she could find himself or herself being stopped by gardaí, checked and ultimately going through our judicial system so we need to look at that. We cannot have ambiguity insofar as enforcement is concerned.

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