John Crown (Independent)

I believe we should do that. We should also consider extending the legal limits on where people can smoke. It was a subject of some amusement to me - working as I do in environs where it is illegal to smoke either indoors or outdoors - to discover that within the hallowed campus of Leinster House there are several locations officially or unofficially designated as smoking areas. It would not be unreasonable for whichever of our committees deals with internal privileges to consider the possibility of setting a good example for the country by making the entire Leinster House campus, within the gates, a smoke-free zone. If it can be done in hospital complexes, there is no reason we cannot do it here. Hospital patients are generally not well enough to go out to the street for a cigarette, although one will occasionally see some poor addicts who do. Most Deputies and Senators are well enough to leave the confines of barracks for a cigarette.

I warmly support this measure, as I do any extension of measures which limit smoking. The single greatest action we can take as a society to improve health is to reduce the rate of smoking. I often put it to patients who continue to smoke after cancer treatment that if they had two choices, either never to see a doctor again or to give up smoking, the choice that will have the greatest positive impact on their health is the latter.