Ryanair permitting I shall arrive in Dublin shortly before midday.

Tonight Forest is supporting a Dublin Salon event on plain packaging of tobacco and minimum pricing of alcohol.

It was intended to be a debate between the IEA's Chris Snowdon and a representative of one of a number of organisations including ASH Ireland, Alcohol Action Ireland and the TobaccoFree Research Institute Ireland whose director general, Luke Clancy, is a former chairman of ASH Ireland.

To the best of my knowledge not one of these organisations replied to organiser Justin Smyth's invitation to speak which says it all, really.

Justin was minded to cancel the event but I pointed out that if we did that we would be playing into their hands because that's exactly what they want.

They want to close down debate while enjoying exclusive access to government, not to mention preferential treatment in the media.

When it comes to engagement between opposing parties on tobacco and alcohol-related issues the UK is hardly a beacon of light but Ireland - like Brussels - takes the biscuit.

Tomorrow night, for example, Forest is hosting the second in a series of private dinners designed to bring together a variety of people with widely disparate views.

So far, when it comes to attracting opposing views, we've hit the same wall as Dublin Salon. No-one from the 'public health' community is prepared to engage with us even though the dinners are conducted under Chatham House rules and apart from the speaker the names of the dozen or so guests remain strictly confidential.

The absurdity reached a new peak when someone we invited to dinner on Wednesday took the best part of a week to hum and haw before apologetically declining our invitation.

I won't name him because he seems a decent bloke and it would be a breach of trust.

It's worth mentioning however because I got the impression he wanted to join us but because he works for a political party he had to ask his superiors for their approval.

Not one person, mind, but several - hence the delay in getting a decision.

Permission, needless to say, was denied and he won't be joining us - not even in a private capacity.

As for the media, I've lost count of the number of journalists in Ireland who decline to engage with us. In fact I now consider it a result just to get a reply, even if it's a firm or brusque 'no'.

Ironically, as I mentioned in a previous post, a leading vaping advocate also ignored our invitation to dinner (shortly before unfollowing us on Twitter) so it's not just political parties and professional public health activists who are refusing to engage.

This, then, is the state of political and public health discourse in Ireland today.

Thankfully it's not all doom and gloom. Fourteen people will be attending our dinner in Dublin tomorrow and while I'm there I'll also be pressing ahead with plans for a rather more ambitious event later in the year.

Watch this space.