Gabrielle McFadden (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am very pleased to speak on this Bill. I commend my colleague Senator Reilly. I acknowledge his absolute passion for this topic and moreover for protecting people. That comes, I suppose, from being a doctor as his life revolves around looking after and protecting people. I commend his work.

This proposal to ban smoking where food is served will "de-normalise" the use of cancer-causing cigarettes. Senator Dolan spoke of how normal it was for him and his brother to watch their mother smoke. My mother smoked when I was a child and asked us as we were growing up to please not smoke. She said she did not know the terrible effect of smoking when she started and then she became addicted. Cigarettes are an addictive drug. It took her many years to give them up. As teenagers, of course, we knew better and it was cool to smoke so we laughed it off and smoked. I continued until I was pregnant with my first daughter. The smoking ban in pubs and restaurants stopped me ever going back to smoking. When I was pregnant I would say I could not wait for the day I had the baby and looked forward to a lovely cup of coffee and a cigarette. When she was born I did not do that because I was looking after her but when I went out for the first time without having a child with me I did not want to smoke because I would not go out on the street to smoke. We know the ban works.

As Senator Reilly said, no conversation about tobacco can begin without remembering the 6,000 men and women in this country who die prematurely because of the product. The situation is improving, however, because of the ban in restaurants and pubs and the plain packaging which Senator Reilly worked so hard to get. Although they are not supposed to smoke in a car with children I see people doing it and marvel at how a parent with a small child could do that.

The Royal College of Physicians of Ireland's policy group on tobacco "strongly supports" this Bill. Dr. Des Cox, a paediatric respiratory consultant said this measure is important to reduce smoking: "Any level of exposure to tobacco smoke is unacceptable . . . . The developing lungs of children are particularly susceptible to damage from second-hand smoke ...". It is a no-brainer to take the next step and ban smoking in areas where people are eating. Nobody is forcing business owners to stop providing a smoking area for customers. It is the right of business people to do that if they so wish. It is much more important that we protect those people who want to eat out and do not want to inhale second-hand smoke. It is not just a question of the economic factors at play here in the way of hospital beds and days lost from work but of the emotional cost, the sadness and hardship that a family goes through when one of them gets cancer from smoking. I commend Senator Reilly on all the work he has done thus far and I am very proud to support his Private Member’s Bill.