Geraldine Feeney (Fianna Fail)

Indeed I do not. It was lovely to eat out on both nights in public houses which serve food and everyone, including smokers, was talking about the nice clean air. I did not wake up this morning, as Senator Feighan and I have often talked about, having come out of a smelly, smoke-filled pub with sore eyes and a sore throat, a running nose and stinking clothes. I am looking forward to the reduction in my cleaning bills.

A friend of mine was in New York at the weekend. He spoke to a publican and restaurateur who told him the smoking ban there had an initial effect on their businesses but, when it settled down, the effect was very positive because the 70% or 80% of people who are non-smokers came into the bars and were delighted with the clean air. Even the smokers are quite happy with the smoking ban and they accept they have to go outside to smoke and are therefore inclined to smoke less.

As other speakers have said, in six months' time or less there will be no more talk about this ban and we will look back and ask how we ever got away with it. For years we have got away with polluting everyone's air for the sake of the few people who wanted to smoke. This legislation will go down in history as the most effective and important in this Seanad.