Smokers fog up Council business

November 1987

For once, politics went out the window at Wexford County Council. Inter-party rivalry was forgotten at Monday’s meeting for the most emotive part of the day - a decision on whether or not smoking should be banned in the chamber will meetings are taking place.

Inveterate puffers like Ivan Yates (FG), Rory Murphy (FF) and Leo Carthy (Ind.) were all on the same side, to oppose the motion calling for a ban.

And eventually they won the day, defeating the proposal by nine votes to five.

In favour of the controversial ban were Hugh Byrne, Lorcan Allen, Jim Walsh, Jimmy Curtis, and Sean Doyle.

Cllr Walsh had claimed smokers should leave the chamber if they wished to smoke, while Depu- ty Byrne said smokers were denying non-smokers the right to sit in a clean environment.

But the opposition was fierce. Rory Murphy described his own party colleagues who opposed smoking as ‘new-found charismatics’ who had never tried to ban smoking at Fianna Fáil party meetings. He could not understand why they now wanted to ban it from Council meetings.

Fine Gael TD Ivan Yates appealed to councillors be charitable to smokers who tried to give up cigarettes but failed. He also said he didn’t want to see a ‘farcical’ situation like at Enniscorthy Urban Council, where meetings are regularly adjourned for ten minutes to allow people go outside to smoke a cigarette.

In the end, the smokers had their way, and they continued to puff merrily away while the meeting went on.