David Norris (Independent)

I welcome this excellent motion. It nails the Government's flag to the mast. It is particularly good that there is no amendment from the Opposition and that there is no attempt to play politics with this. Everyone in the House, including smokers and non-smokers, Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael, Labour, the Progressive Democrats, Independents and others were behind the Minister on this. It is a very important and innovative measure and I am proud it is being introduced in Ireland. It shows that we are thinking.

I was at Farmleigh the other evening where there was a wonderful dinner for the chairmen of the foreign affairs committees of the EU member states, including the incoming states. I had at my table some French, Czech and Slovak people and some of them were grumbling. The French could not believe we were doing this. They took out their cigarettes and they fingered them, but they were afraid to light them. I thought that was great. Chairmen of foreign affairs committees were terrified to light their cigarettes, which meant we had done a good day's work.

I speak as a current non-smoker; I am a reformed smoker. We should pay tribute to the Minister, Deputy Martin, because this was not the easiest thing to do in the beginning. We may forget that there was a lot of opposition to the measure. Deputies in all parties nibbled at his bum, to use that wonderful phrase which was applied to Mr. Haughey, and tried to erode the support for it. There was much lobbying, but he stood up against it, although it was not always popular. We should also remember the people involved in Action on Smoking and Health, who were seen as eccentric because of their opposition to smoking, and people such as Professor Luke Clancy and Professor Risteard Mulcahy. They sounded the warning signal about smoking and continued at it, although it might not have been popular.

However, I will not be altogether positive. As a former smoker, I know how difficult it was to give it up. I gave it up two years ago in odd circumstances. I had an aunt whom I adored and she died a few years ago at the age of 103. I give a party for her every year to keep her memory alive and we read sections from an enchantingly eccentric diary she kept and all the cousins visit. She used to torture me about giving up cigarettes. She campaigned about it all the time. I eventually told her that I would do what she did and give them up when I would be 75. She gave them up when she was 75 years old and then she made life miserable for everyone else. Why was it so difficult?

I want to be a bit critical and negative of the enormous financial interests in the tobacco companies and the way they behaved. On this splendid day of celebration now that many of our public places are smoke free, I want to state that the behaviour of the cigarette companies throughout the world, the international, American and British companies, was appalling. When I was a child, it was popular to smoke. One was a man if one smoked. We had what is now called the film noir, the silhouette of the man in the trilby hat and the fag in the mouth. Sometimes in a romantic way he would light the fag and pass it to the woman. There was a frisson throughout the cinema. It was a romantic and manly thing to do. People also thought it was healthy. I have heard of people who were prescribed cigarettes to relax them or to help with asthma. It is impossible to believe now that that was done. Once people started smoking cigarettes, it was difficult to give them up.

We know from a series of court cases in the United States that cigarette companies bought up other research and suppressed their own research which clearly demonstrated the link indicated in this motion between cigarette smoking and all types of cancer, particularly lung cancer. They knew it, but they suppressed it and bought up other research. Although they knew what smoking was doing to people's health, they continued to promote their cigarettes on the basis that it was not true. They denied the facts. More than that, they engaged in experiments not to try to produce a harmless cigarette, but to find what ingredients could be added to make them more addictive. The cigarette companies operated a criminal conspiracy against global health, which is still going on. We should remember that. Those same lousy companies are dumping their dangerous products on the Third World and anywhere they can get a market. They do not carry health warnings on the packets because they are not required to do so. It would be wrong not to put that black mark against the cigarette companies.

I did not realise that approximately 70% of people do not smoke, which is good. Perhaps that explains the high approval rate among the public for this initiative. I smiled to myself at the vintners and the other people who said their businesses would collapse and who engaged in the usual whinge. It would not do them the slightest bit of harm if they caught a bit of a cold. I remember when pubs were decent places where someone could have a quiet drink and a conversation. Now the drinks are pushed at people. In the same way as the tobacco companies push cigarettes, the drinks companies push their products.

I agree with the Government Whip who mentioned the related subject of alcohol consumption. I hope we have a debate on that. I repeat what I said on the Order of Business today now that the Minister of State is present. On my way back from speaking at a dinner of European bankers on O'Connell Street I went into one of the shops at 11.10 p.m. and they had on display six packs of beer, bottles of wine and full bottles of whiskey. Out of curiosity I asked the lad in charge if I could buy a full bottle of whiskey at 11.10 p.m. and he said I could. He was a non-national who had difficulty speaking English, therefore I doubt if he knew much about to whom liquor should be sold. That is terrible.

As regards the vintners' argument that their business will be ruined, I would not shed any tears if that happened. One has only to look at the prices in the region of €2 million being gained for pubs nowadays. It would not worry me if they caught a cold. If one listened to the gabby cabby from New York this morning on the radio, one would have heard him say that argument was nonsense because they are all doing fine. He said he knows that is the case because he takes their passengers and he said there has not been any drop off in business.

I hope something will be done about people smoking on buses because my experience is that they are still doing it. I hope there will be a clampdown on that. It is not fair to ask the driver of the bus, since there are no conductors, to control the situation, particularly in certain areas. We must consider that.

Someone referred to the fact that we have successfully got rid of smoking on aeroplanes. I am glad that is the case because I remember when smoking was allowed. The smoking section was up the front and the non-smoking section was behind it, which meant all the smoke drifted back and everyone was choked by passive smoking. It was nonsense. Airlines used to have to change the air frequently in the body of the aeroplane because of the smoke. However, they do not bother to do that anymore because it is a costly exercise. Perhaps that could be drawn to the attention of the proprietors of airlines. That is the reason people get colds and bugs from aeroplanes all the time. As you, a Chathaoirligh, are a sophisticated international traveller who represents this august House——