Mary Henry (Independent)

I welcome the Minister of State. After a lifetime in medicine I warmly welcome the legislation, but I wonder what the country is coming to. We have a major conference of our EU Presidency on sexually transmitted disease and now we are leading the way with a ban on smoking in the workplace. We are tackling incredible subjects and I am delighted to see it.

Evidence has existed for decades suggesting that passive smoking is an extremely serious problem. There are increased incidences of respiratory disease among children and cot deaths and while we cannot say those children smoke, there are higher levels of both in households where parents smoke than in non-smoking households.

Senator Glynn was right in describing those who smoke as engaged in long-term suicide. I was glad he also mentioned addiction, as this seems to be the most difficult addiction to deal with. I know people who gave up smoking easily and, never having smoked myself, I find it hard to understand how difficult it is for some people to give up. I am delighted more efforts are being made through the health promotion unit of the Department of Health and Children to help people give up smoking. The advertising campaigns have been very good and the help lines also appear to be useful to people.

Senator Glynn said some people find smoking more difficult to give up than heroin. I dealt with a pregnant woman some years ago in the Rotunda who was addicted to both heroin and tobacco. The nurses' strike was on and we had to discharge her. I was concerned about her so I went to see her later that day and she was smoking at the door when I got there. She said she could keep off the heroin but not the cigarettes. She was proud of herself in hospital because neither was available. She was a very intelligent young woman and it had to be very difficult for her when she knew how much damage she was doing to herself and her unborn child.

People in the workplace deserve our protection from passive smoking and it is right to bring in this ban. I have visited Canada since it banned smoking in restaurants and pubs and human life is continuing. The weather was cold but some people stood outside to smoke. I regret to say that they were mainly European. Knowing this debate was coming up, I asked a publican if there had been much drop in trade and he said there had been a drop in the counter trade for a while. He had made up for that with the table trade, as many more people came in to eat because there was no smoking, and when I spoke to him his bar trade had returned to what it had been.

We have such a problem with alcohol that we should avoid too much moaning and groaning about a drop in its consumption. Yesterday on the Order of Business a Member said that children would not be able to go into pubs during the summer. The Leader said she felt a pub was a most unsuitable place to have children and I agree. I did not get a chance to agree with her because she was responding to the Order of Business. I find it profoundly depressing to see small children asleep at 10 p.m. and 11 p.m. in pubs and welcome the fact that we now take these issues more seriously.

There has been a welcome drop in the percentage of people who smoke in Ireland to 25%. This is quite something because 20 years ago the figure was approximately 50%. We are getting somewhere and our figures are better than quite a few other countries. However, one black spot is in respect of young women, among whom there is an increase in the number who smoke. In this regard, the bans on advertising are very important.

I listened with care to Senator Feighan's remarks about vending machines which may get around some of the proposed bans in shops. How long will retailers be given in order to change the displays in shops? Many small retailers have cigarette displays, the facades of which take up a huge amount of space advertising tobacco products.

Excellent legislation has come before the Houses of the Oireachtas in respect of which regulations have not been introduced to enforce it and I am worried that may be the case with this Bill. I hope any regulations which are required to enforce the Bill are introduced as rapidly as possible. For example, Senator Feighan referred to candy cigarettes, which it would be a great pity not to ban because I am sure the confectionery companies would not go out of business without them. It seems ridiculous to promote cigarettes to young children in this manner and tell them later they cannot smoke.

It has been demonstrated that young women are very much drawn towards smoking what are described as "light" cigarettes, which numerous surveys have shown are just as harmful as regular cigarettes. The associations with being slim and sexy are always present in cigarette advertisements. I was depressed to discover a few years ago that Tower Hamlets, a health district in east London, had a higher death rate from lung cancer than from breast cancer among women. It is the first place in which this happened and I would hate to see it happen here. We are making huge efforts to reduce the incidence of death from breast cancer, therefore, let us try to do the same in respect of lung cancer.

As I walked to the House this morning, I was interested to note that almost every young woman I passed had a cigarette in her hand, although most of them must have burnt out as they walked along. There are many young women among those who smoke outside office buildings in which smoking is prohibited. The efforts made to stop women smoking will have to be redoubled.

It is despicable to see the advertising by tobacco companies in developing countries. If we have any influence as President of the EU, I would hope we would use it to do something about this. I attended the Cairo conference on population ten years ago. The only bit of Cairo I saw were the Pyramids, beside which was the bizarre sight of an advertisement for Camel cigarettes. I suppose it is a good brand to advertise because of the presence of camels there but it was depressing to see in a country with so much poverty and in need of a great deal of health promotion.

This legislation will be enforced by people in pubs and restaurants, certainly in the latter. It is much more difficult to get a table in a non-smoking area than a smoking area. One often has to take one in the former because there is none in the latter. I am concerned about the large number of places which are exempted from the Bill. For example, it could be hard in a nursing home for someone to say "I do not want you smoking near me", if the people are sharing a living area. I hope this will be examined carefully. We have had problems in the psychiatric service with people being rewarded with cigarettes, although the practice has stopped as far as I know. I hope we are careful in the areas which have been exempted.

I would like to see hotels and guest houses included in the ban. They must have an adequate supply of non-smoking rooms because there is nothing worse than booking into hotel and having to take a smoking room. Most people do not want to smoke in their bedrooms. Therefore, from a commercial point of view, the hotels would be well advised to look at this because it is hard to sleep in a room in which people have smoked.

I am glad to see the legislation about ten being the minimum size of a packet of cigarettes. This will help reduce the numbers sold to school children. I still see children being served cigarettes and I have objected. I am sorry it is not easier to make complaints about shops selling cigarettes. One would need an environmental health officer under one's arm. On one occasion when I complained, the man told me that he knew the customer's family. It is quite immaterial to me whether one is related to someone or not, one is not supposed to sell cigarettes to children. This is a difficult issue.

Does the Minister have to make orders for sections 15 and 16, which are important parts of the Bill, or will they come into force on 29 March? I sincerely hope so. I am looking forward to seeing these measures enforced in the Dáil bars. It will be very interesting.

Like the Minister of State, I was extremely pleased that we were one of the first countries to sign the World Health Organisation framework convention on tobacco control but I would be more pleased if we ratified it. Signing shows that the spirit is willing, but is the flesh weak? It would be great if we got around to ratifying the convention. I hope the Office of Tobacco Control will have all the powers it needs to carry out the functions which Members of the Oireachtas intend and that it will have adequate funding to do so. I am delighted to see this Bill before the House.