Mary O'Rourke (Fianna Fail)

As Leader of the House, I would like to add my voice to the tributes made by Senators. I was thinking back to 1987 when as Minister for Health, the current Ceann Comhairle of the Dáil, Deputy O'Hanlon, introduced a Bill on the advertising of tobacco which had been originally mooted by his predecessor, former Deputy Barry Desmond. I vividly recall the evening in the Dáil when a cross-party consensus on the matter was arrived at. It was highly interesting. It has taken a further 17 years for us to arrive at this point. The hiccoughs and lacunas that developed were no harm. In that period opposition to the proposed measure had been gung-ho but, following a more tranquil interval because of various technical matters the fight was gone out of the other side when the initiative re-emerged. It was as if it had absorbed the facts and the lessons and taken on board what customers and the general public were saying. The Bill was more calmly received.

In social terms, often when one is attempting to achieve something that involves controversy, it is more effective to allow a breathing space in this way for the message to sink in. People grow weary of a topic and publicans got tired of hearing that they were all going to go out of business and facing bankruptcy because no one would be going into their pubs. All I hear people saying is that they can now go into pubs because they will be able to breathe and will not have smelly clothes etc.

My late husband smoked for 20 years of his married life. He had, of course, smoked before that. Then he stopped, went "cold turkey" one night and never smoked again without the aid of drugs, patches or anything. He just stopped. My mother used to say he was a resolute man to do that. Long before it was commonly known that people could die from smoking, he decided that one could and he took the initiative. He passed on, eventually, but not from smoking.

People now realise the painful and harmful effect smoking can have on their health. Why set out to kill oneself? That is madness. I never smoked, so I can afford to talk like this. Why should one set out to damage one's health? To open a package which says "Smoking can damage your health" and then to proceed to smoke is stupid. Everybody will be far healthier and far better humoured. I say to the Minister, "well done". One has to stand up for one what believes in, but it is amazing what can happen when the lacuna disappears.