Sir, – Risteárd Mulcahy (November 1st) implores that “we should be allowed to smoke as long as we do not bring harm to others”. I couldn’t agree more. However, as long as smokers continue to be allocated huge amounts of the finite resources of our public health service, they are doing immense harm to other citizens who are denied these resources as a result.
It would clearly be inhumane and impractical to force those, or the families of those, with one or more of the many painful and deadly diseases caused by smoking to pay for their treatment or be refused such treatment. I would therefore like to propose the following. At the end of each year, the HSE should do an analysis of the proportion of its budget spent on smoking-related diseases and deliver the bill to all of the cigarette companies operating in the State over the previous five years. The companies would be jointly and severally liable for same, but could divide the tab as they see fit. – Yours, etc,