Northern Ireland will have at least a partial smoking ban in public places but debate on an outright ban will continue, the health minister announced yesterday.
Shaun Woodward, who joined the Northern Ireland Office after the May general election, unveiled his anti-smoking proposals during a major speech on health policy in Belfast yesterday.
Following a public consultation exercise, which found that more than 90 per cent of 70,000 respondents favoured a ban along the lines of that in the Republic, Mr Woodward said restrictions would be put in place.
However, questions concerning an outright ban in pubs, hotels and restaurants as well as in prisons and in psychiatric units needed further consideration, he added.
The minister will visit Dublin next Monday and Tuesday during which he will examine the operation of the smoking ban since its introduction in March last year. In a personal section of yesterday's speech, Mr Woodward told the audience he quit his 20-a-day habit in March following a visit to New York City, where a ban is enforced.
The public consultation exercise revealed that less than half of 1 per cent favoured option A - self regulation without need for prohibition; and only 8 per cent of respondents believed that option B, a partial ban, was the way forward.
More than 91 per cent said they wanted option C, an outright ban.
"So what will we now do?" he asked. "The least we will do is option B. But should we go for option C, the total ban?"
He said his department had a "profound responsibility" to get the right answer and pledged to take time to consider the question.
"A few more months to decide between B or C will be worth the wait," he said.
Referring to his own experience of quitting, Mr Woodward added: "The fact is that smoking claims almost 3,000 lives in Northern Ireland every year. Eight hundred deaths are from lung cancer, nearly all these related to smoking," he said.
"I can't stop you killing yourself if you want to smoke at home. This isn't going to be a nanny state.
"But I think we have a duty to protect the public from the damage that passive smoking can do and we know it can do."
He pledged: "We have a responsibility to act, so we will act. The remaining few months will be about whether it is a total ban or a partial ban."
Mr Woodward's Dublin visit will help in his assessment of the difficulties involved in banning smoking in workplaces.
The minister will also be keen to hear how public opinion was encouraged to back a ban.
The proposals are expected in the autumn, but could come earlier, he added.
The political parties broadly welcomed the announcement, although the SDLP and Alliance accused the minister of being too cautious.
Nicola Carruthers, of the Federation of Retail Licensed Trade, said she was glad the minister was to look at the effect the ban has had in the Republic where, she said, the ban has cost thousands of jobs.
"We have worked hard to demonstrate that the issue of passive smoking can be responsibly addressed by the licensed trade without the need for a total smoking ban," she told the BBC.
However, health promotion bodies criticised the announcement as being overly cautious.
Gerry McElwee, of the Ulster Cancer Foundation, said it was "mind blowing" that a total ban had not been introduced.