Taoiseach reveals anxiety over ‘mass rebellion’ to smoking ban

By Cillian Sherlock, PA

Health officials were privately anxious over a “mass rebellion” to Ireland’s smoking ban, the Taoiseach has said.

Ireland became the first country to implement a workplace smoking ban in 2004 during Micheál Martin’s time as health minister.

Now Taoiseach, Mr Martin counts the ban as among his proudest achievements.

However, he has revealed there was “a lot of anxiety” around introducing the measure.

Mr Martin made the remarks while being interviewed by US Chamber of Commerce president Suzanne Clark in Washington DC.

He said: “Many years ago, we managed to bring in a smoking ban into Ireland. I was Minister for Health at the time.”

As New York state had implemented a similar measure one year prior, he met with then-New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and his health officials.

“Because they’d done the New York equivalent, we asked what would they do if they were doing it all over again?

“And they said: ‘We wouldn’t have worried as much’.

“Because we were really worried – you’re sort of saying what happens if there’s mass rebellion?”

He added: “So privately, there was a lot of anxiety. So they say they wouldn’t have worried as much.

“The second thing they said was: ‘What are you doing on compliance?’ And they said: ‘You’ve got to prepare your compliance piece’.”

Mr Martin said his officials “didn’t actually have a plan for compliance” at the time.

He said it was a simple example of where “the sharing of knowledge can make a success story out of something”.

Ultimately, Mr Martin said the implementation of the smoking ban was well received by the public.