I needed a laugh, so I have been having a little poke around ASH Ireland’s website.  You know them?  The Storm Troopers of the Anti Smoking Nazi League.  They poke at my life on a daily basis, so fair is fair.

One page in particular took my fancy.

They call it “Resources” on their menu, and I thought it would be links to other sites and stuff I can download and things like that.  It wasn’t.

When I got into the page, it was titled “Key Facts”.

Oh boy!  Facts?  There are one or two lines in there that are certainly ‘facts’ such as that the smoking ban came into force in March 2004, but the rest?

One line caught my eye – “It costs the State €1 billion per year to provide health services for smokers”.

This is a downright lie.

Simple calculation will show that the correct figure is nearer €3.6 billion.

How do I work that out?  Simple.  €15 billion spent on health?  24% of the population smoke?  24% of 15 is 3.6.

Of course the cororally of that is another simple fact, namely the the Irish government spends €11.4 billion on healthcare for people who don’t smoke.

This is a shocking figure.  Eleven billion, four hundred million Euro spent on non-smokers?

There is one simple solution to this – Obviously the smokers cost less so it should be incumbent on our government to encourage smoking at all costs.

Stick that in your pipe, Harney.

Oh, and while I think of it – Ash?  Your website is a heap of shit.  And it is not standards compliant even though you proudly proclaim that it is.

More fucking lies.