JOHN MARCHANT,
Madam, - D.W.O'Brien (February 6th) would have us believe that Europeans will not visit Ireland if we ban smoking in pubs. What a brilliant argument for lifting other restrictions in our society. Think of it: we could have casinos, strip clubs, brothels - even plastic bags! Prove that these would attract tourists, and it's all just fine.
Let's throw out the planning laws for hotels and holiday homes, encourage more weekend drinking parties for Temple Bar, and put an outdoor restaurant in Trinity's Front Square. God save Ireland - we obviously don't want to. - Yours, etc.,
JOHN MARCHANT,
Harolds Grange Road,
Dublin 16.
... ... * ... * ... * ... ...
Madam, - While I applaud the decision to prohibit smoking in pubs, I would have thought that a much more serious and widespread problem was the prevalence of smoking in the home. Customers in pubs are consenting adults, who are constantly bombarded with the information that they are slowly committing suicide, as indeed they have the democratic right to do.
Prohibition of smoking in pubs will drive smokers to drink and smoke in the home, with noxious fumes being puffed in the faces of children who have no say in the matter. Pub employees, in the unusual event that they are not smokers themselves, at least have the option of seeking employment elsewhere. Statistics show that children's health can be seriously damaged, especially where both parents smoke. This particular type of child molestation has had little publicity.
If the Minister of Health is going to get together with the Minister of Justice to go so far as to ask the Garda to raid pubs in search of dirty ashtrays, surely it would only be a small step further to impose a requirement on householders, in every house where there are children, to install smoke alarms, similar to those on aircraft, linked by telephone to Garda stations. Upon production of a certificate signed by a priest or other respected person that all the children in the house had reached the statutory age of consent (for smoking) the equipment could be disconnected. - Yours, etc.,
BRIAN CROWLEY,
Leinster Square,
Dublin 6.