The madness of Micheál Martin

Micheál Martin is livid.

Before I explain why, I should mention that the former Taoiseach and current Tánaiste (deputy head of government) was the minister who banned smoking in the workplace in Ireland in 2004.

That led directly to the smoking ban in Scotland, followed by England, Wales, and Northern Ireland.

Today Martin is leader of Fianna Fáil and minister for foreign affairs in an unconventional power sharing arrangement that led to him being Taoiseach for two-and-a-half years from June 2020 before Fine Gael’s Leo Varadkar returned as head of Ireland’s coalition government in December last year.

With everything that’s going on, at home and abroad, you might think the deputy head of government and foreign affairs minister would have more important things on his mind, but speaking earlier this week Martin chose to vent on the subject of, er, vaping.

And he’s furious. According to the Irish Examiner:

Vaping is the tobacco industry "coming back at" governments for indoor smoking bans, Tánaiste Micheál Martin has claimed.

Mr Martin was the health minister from 2000 to 2004 during which time the smoking ban was implemented here despite tough opposition. 

On the latest episode of the Irish Examiner podcast Let Me Tell You, he discussed the difficulties in establishing the law some two decades ago and its legacy. 

He also said that vaping is "the revenge of the tobacco industry" and is something he is "very angry about".

Is he serious? At the very least it begs the question: how much does Micheál Martin actually know about the history of vaping and the tobacco industry’s involvement?

Truth is, the tobacco companies came late to the vaping party and they’ve been playing catch-up ever since.

The fact that they are now in a position where they might dominate the market in years to come is due to their global distribution networks and the millions (billions?) they are investing in the development of new, and safer, products.

Since we are talking about products that evidence suggests are significantly less risky than combustible tobacco, you might think that governments and politicians like Micheál Martin would welcome the direction the tobacco industry is taking.

I’m not suggesting Big Tobacco’s motives are 100 per cent altruistic but to suggest the industry is driven by “revenge” for the smoking ban is absurd.

In my experience the tobacco companies are driven not by “revenge” but pragmatism. Far from avenging lost battles like the smoking ban, they’re resolutely focussed on the present and the future, never the past.

Also, I’ve never met a tobacco company exec who isn’t pleased that the company they work for is investing in reduced risk products because developing RRPs, and offering smokers less harmful alternatives to combustible tobacco, is genuinely considered the right and proper thing to do.

It’s worth adding that many of the executives who were around when laws to enforce workplace smoking bans were introduced in Ireland and the UK are no longer working in the industry, so the idea that “revenge” would be a motivating factor for their successors is also laughable.

Perhaps Martin is still aggrieved that the companies had the temerity to oppose his smoking ban 20 years ago, but transferring that grievance to the issue of youth vaping - which has very little to do with Big Tobacco - seems a bit silly.

This isn’t the first time Martin has commented on vaping, youth vaping in particular, but it’s the first time I’ve heard him suggest that it represents "the revenge of the tobacco industry".

If he sat down and spoke to the companies he might realise what a crazy accusation that is. There's no chance of that happening though because it's easier to create a straw man than have a helpful discussion with a key stakeholder.

Meanwhile, is it any wonder that the Irish Government's ambition of a 'tobacco free' Ireland by 2025 is not only in tatters but provokes more titters than Frankie Howard?

My advice? Give up this quixotic ambition because, as Shakespeare might say, that way madness lies.

See also - Irish Examiner view: A ban gone up in smoke.