Nine days ago I reported that a motion to ban smoking in the grounds of Leinster House, home of the Irish Parliament, had failed.
Senator John Crown, the man behind the proposal, is zealously anti-smoking and was said to be "raging" after the Joint Health and Children Committee rejected the idea and voted for an amendment that favoured a voluntary solution.
The following day the Irish Independent published an article by Crown (I'm determined to smoke out Leinster House addicts) in which he explained that the proposal to make the Leinster House campus smoke-free is "a small part of a more ambitious set of anti-tobacco measures".
These include legislation to ban smoking in cars when children are present and a campaign – Stamp out Smoking 2030 – that urges the European Union to ban "all commerce in tobacco" by 2030.
I need hardly tell you that Prof Crown is an ex-smoker. He also has some bizarre ideas about risk and personal responsibility:
Anyway, I am pleased to report that the Irish Independent today published a letter by John Mallon, Forest's representative in Ireland, in response to Crown's article.
We originally submitted an article, which was accepted for publication, but the story was overtaken by other breaking news and the piece got spiked.
The letter, an edited version of the article, concludes:
The logical extension of banning smoking in the grounds of Leinster House is that we prohibit it in parks, on the beach and in the street. None of these measures can be easily policed, nor would we want them to be.
Prof Crown says his move is "for the smokers' own benefit". I would respectfully suggest that responsible adults are better placed than he is to decide what is for their own benefit.
We all know the risks of smoking. But we must be careful as a society not to go too far. Life is full of risks. If we try to eliminate all risks through draconian legislation we create a society of busybodies, snitches, snoopers and law-breakers.
You can read it in full here: Kicking butt (Irish Independent)