If films showing people smoking were banned because they portrayed "undesirable lifestyles", then crime movies could not be screened either, the Dáil was told during a debate on the new legislation to prohibit smoking in the workplace. Marie O'Halloran reports.
The former Taoiseach, Mr John Bruton, said that if people were not allowed to be seen smoking in a movie, they should not be allowed to be seen stealing in one either.
He rejected the call by the chairman of the Health Committee, Mr Batt O'Keeffe, who urged the Minister for Health "under no circumstances" to grant exemptions to RTÉ for some of the programmes it made.
"Are our film-makers and drama-producers suggesting that they will portray the lifestyle we want or one that we are trying to eradicate and change by putting in place an anti-smoking strategy?" he asked.
Mr Bruton said that "under the O'Keeffe test, almost all movies would have to be banned. Have people thought this through? If the idea is that a socially unacceptable activity should not be portrayed in a movie, then cigarette-smoking is not the only socially unacceptable activity. There must be some underlying and consistent principle."
Mr John Gormley (Greens, Dublin South East) said rather than banning such smoking scenes "there should be a charge, which would go into the fund to promote anti-smoking, if people intend to promote smoking" on screen.
Mr Bruton also expressed concerns about non-residents drinking and smoking after hours in hotels. They would have their drinks sent up to the bedrooms of hotel guests and would drink and smoke up there rather than in the bar downstairs.
"That is another diversion of trade", and the Government should reflect on its consequences, he said.
But the Fianna Fáil TD for Dublin West, Mr Conor Lenihan, doubted there would be a problem of people crowding into hotel bedrooms after weddings to have a smoke or drink.
"When people retire after wedding it is generally for activities other than smoking and drinking, such as sleeping and making love," he said. "Not in a group," said Fine Gael's health spokeswoman, Ms Olivia Mitchell.
"Hotel bedrooms in my experience are generally a place of rest or sexual joy," the Fianna Fáil deputy added. "They are not places where people retire to, to have a smoking fest late at night."
The Minister for Health, Mr Martin, introduced the new Bill to replace last year's Act banning smoking in the workplace. The Public Health (Tobacco) Amendment Bill aimed to comply with a European directive that legislation which could affect competition law must be notified to the EU Commission during the drafting stage.
The Minister was severely criticised for the failure to inform the Commission when the legislation was passed last year and, Ms Mitchell said, what the Minister was doing was "foolhardy and at worst downright stupid".
The Fine Gael spokeswoman, who backs the ban, predicted legal challenges from the tobacco industry. "What we have now is certainly not the watertight legislation the Minister spoke of. It is as leaky as a colander, full of holes which the Government has punched in it," she said.
The debate on the legislation is to be continued.