Tonight on Prime Time television
Tuesday, May 1, 2012 at 17:11 
Last week I mentioned the enormous breakthrough we have enjoyed in Ireland.
Little by little, bit by bit, Forest Eireann, founded in August 2010, has been attracting the attention of the Irish media.
Initially it was the radio stations, local then national, with the notable exception of the state broadcaster RTE.
Gradually we started to get some press coverage. Then, during a very successful tour of Ireland, spokesman John Mallon was invited to appear on RTE Radio, an invitation repeated twice in recent weeks.
Tonight we've gone one better. John will be interviewed on national television – on RTE's Prime Time which, as its name suggests, is broadcast in, er, prime time (9.35pm).
More important, perhaps, he's going head-to-head with Irish health minister James Reilly who wants to ban smoking in parks and beaches and last week labelled the tobacco industry "evil". The RTE News website has more information:
See also: Forest Eireann's tour de force (October 2011) and Forest Eireann on RTE and Newstalk (November 2011)
Update: Click here or on the image above to watch John Mallon on RTE's Prime Time. Item begins 21 minutes in.
Reader Comments (10)
I've no idea whether John smokes or not but I was disappointed in his, seemingly, blithe acceptance of the 'statistics' trotted out by that Minister. The whole point of the debate from a smokers perspective is that they are complete finger in the air guestimates, based on fragile, shot through, full of holes, pseudo 'science'.
To let them continually and unquestioningly use them as the basis allows them to control the agenda. Until that nettle is grasped, we'll achieve little.
I must admit that I was disappointed. The minister wiped the floor with John. There again, I suppose that is why he is a politician! We must stop the appeasement and subservience!
I noted that the minister immediately started into the evils of Big Tobacco. He also brought up funding. He used the word 'children' over and over again along with addiction, addictionaddictionon - unchallenged. He was well prepared! I noted that he defined children as 'up to the age of 18'! Everything he said was pure propaganda, and he got away with it.
Was the debate supposed to be about smoking in the open air on beaches and such? If so, how did the minister get away with introducing smoking in cars? Shouldn't John have said, "I'm here to talk about smoking in the open air by adults. Health effects on others do not come into it. Children do not come into it, unless your objective is merely to stop children even seeing a person smoking". He should have concentrated on individual, adult freedom.
But, fair-dos to John. He was batting on a sticky wicket right from the start.
@junican - Reilly actually stated that their ban in parks was so that children wouldn't see people smoking and think that it was a normal behaviour - nothing to do with health or inconvenience. It is undesirable that smokers even be seen by The Children in places where The Children congregate. Reilly sidestepped the issue of children seeing smokers in the street - they don't even pretend to be logically consistent but, in their warped world, having banned smoking on beaches and in parks, they'll propose banning it outdoors everywhere on the grounds that it's inconsistent not to given that it's been banned in parks and on beaches.
Thinking back, Joyce, I remember that now. I remember vaguely (must watch it again!) John trying to point out that children see smoking at home, but being interrupted by the presenter before he could press the point (as I recall).
Why do I have a suspicion that these TV programs want to curry favour with the government? They always seem to give 'spokespersons' a clear run while constantly interrupting opponents.
I know Simon doesn't like the use of the Germanic "N" word on his blog, but now they are actually introducing (or wanting to introduce) legislation so that children do not even see smokers, lest the pure children be corrupted by the degenerate untermensch, the very sight of whom requires laws, restrictions and obviously if broken, State-sanctioned punishment for the offender who has had the temerity TO BE SEEN by his betters.
Just how far does it need to go before we finally man up and call this what it is? What else IS State-sponsored denormalisation of a subset of its population, after all? If we can't even bring ourselves to call them out on what they are, how can we even be expected to fight them, let alone win?
The Irish Health minister interviewed clearly wants evil smokers out of the sight of the children, as they are setting a bad example. But as smoking is a completely legal vice, I fail to see what right government has refusing to accommodate smokers inside all public buildings; forcing people to stand outside in the cold turning them into lepers and social outcasts. We all know that modern ventilation systems work and that smoking rooms could be provided without exposing non smokers, staff or children to shs.The smoke of others in a ventilated smoking room, would not in anyway affect anyone else. Forget banning it in parks. What gives government the right to make someones lifestyle choice, however you see it completely illegal inside all public buildings, when no one else is affected by it?
I agree with all the comments above as regards the debate but John is fighting a lonely battle here with the elite lying PC faction that's running the country and being the gentleman that he is, has no back up except for the odd journalist who never take these guys on anyway or the rambustuous Reilly and his fake statistics in the fear that they might loose their job.
If John was the confrontational type you can bet your bottom he would never have got on Prime Time or any other radio station for that matter.
The problem is, Mark, that nowadays pubs are the domain of children as since the smoking ban the pub trade has had to diversify and is now 'family friendly' when originally and not so long ago, it was an adult domain, where children were not welcome or even allowed by law and thereby protected from much of what they apparently need protecting from today!
It is the governments that have put smokers out on the streets in full sight of EVERY human being, child or not and making smoking that much more attractive to 'the chiiiildren'!
Perhaps it is about time governments were banned!
If only Lyn, if only.
In my view, since the building frenzy and the false mad money of the last decade that ruined trade and created false jobs for everyone came to an end, govts realised that the only way to survive was to feed off ourselves just like the building frenzy in reverse, by creating more Quangos to issue more legal sounding Bans under the guise that its for own good, only this time its taking away our personal freedoms and closing down businesses through so called Health and Safety laws, hikes in insurance premiums, hidden taxes and branding our pleasures illegal.
With Brainwashing being the operative word.
I have looked at the video again. I have no idea whether or not what I say next is true or not, but it seems to me that John Mallon was throughly taken aback.
I suspect that he expected that a discussion with a Minister about a ban on smoking in the open air would be just that. I suspect that he did not expect the Minister to emit a diatribe about the evils of tobacco companies, the funding of Forest, smoking in cars with children present, etc.
Perhaps all 'defenders of freedom' might take a lesson from that, so-called, discussion. It was nothing of the sort. The Minister used it for propaganda purposes. In future, expect just that - propaganda. Be prepared to say that what the Minister/Ash spokesperson says is just propaganda and has nothing to do with 'the facts'. BE PREPARED!!! Take them on about the propaganda and the denial of freedom.