Ireland’s leading anti-smoking warrior suffers another election defeat
James Reilly, the former health minister who once declared “war” on the tobacco industry and masterminded the introduction of plain packaging in Ireland, has suffered another humiliating election defeat.
Standing for Fine Gael in a by-election in Dublin Fingal (formerly Dublin North), a seat he held from 2007 to 2016, Reilly came fourth behind Labour, Fianna Fáil and the Green Party whose candidate Joe O’Brien won the seat and was elected to the Dáil.
Minister for health from 2011-2014, Reilly made headlines in 2013 when he described the tobacco industry as “evil”, introduced graphic health warnings on cigarette packs and said he intended to introduce unbranded cigarette packets.
Warming to his theme he later declared, “We are in a war while lives are being lost,” adding, “Standardised packaging is the next logical step in combating this public health epidemic."
His Wikipedia entry, which has an entire section devoted to ‘Smoking’, has some more information I had forgotten:
During the Irish Presidency of the European Union, Reilly prioritised the Tobacco Products Directive. He secured the agreement of the European Council within just six months. Health Commissioner Tonio Borg praised his ability in securing this agreement.
When the Tobacco Directive's future became doubtful because of tobacco industry lobbying in the European Parliament, Reilly arranged for letters supporting the directive to be sent to MEPs from himself, the Taoiseach, 16 European health ministers and the World Health Organisation.
In 2014, however, following a government reshuffle, Reilly was moved - some would say demoted - to minister for children and youth affairs, although he retained responsibility for public health and anti-smoking policy.
While this allowed him to introduce plain packaging, his political career took a further hit when he lost his Dáil seat in the 2016 general election. Ironically, he was no longer a member of the government or the Dáil when the policy was enacted in May 2017.
Instead, thanks to the patronage of Taoiseach Leo Varadkar who nominated him for the Seanad, he became Senator James Reilly and continued his war on tobacco by advocating a ban on smoking in all outdoor dining areas.
Now vaping is in his sights too. Two months ago he called for a ban on flavoured e-cigarettes in Ireland.
But back to Fingal. In March it was reported that:
A local organisation called Empower has teamed up with the Irish Cancer Society, the Department of Health and HSE to make Fingal 'tobacco free'.
The Minister of State for Health Promotion, Catherine Byrne, last week launched 'Tobacco Free Fingal', an initiative to assist communities in Fingal in implementing and maintaining a 'facility tobacco-free policy.'
The initiative will see all Fingal community facilities, homes, parks and beaches becoming smoke-free.
In theory James Reilly should have been a perfect fit for the constituency. The electorate thought otherwise. Perhaps ‘Tobacco Free Fingal’ should be put out to grass as well.
Update: More bad news for Reilly. Although he has already been selected as a candidate in the 2018 election, some of his colleagues may be having second thoughts. According to the Sunday Times (Ireland edition):
Senior Fine Gael sources indicated that Senator James Reilly, a former deputy leader and health minister, will also be replaced on the general election ticket in Dublin Fingal after scoring less than 15% in his by-election contest.
Oh dear.
Reilly meanwhile is reported to have blamed his latest defeat on both the low turnout and some controversial anti-immigrant statements by another defeated Fine Gael candidate, Wexford’s Verona Murphy.
Either explanation might hold some weight if it wasn’t for the fact that he lost in 2016 as well. What was his excuse then?
