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A ministerial decision?

  • 19-08-2005 11:25am
    #1
    strassenwolf
    Closed Accounts Posts: 642 ✭✭✭


    Found this scrap of paper on the train - not sure which newspaper it's from though. (Only the last paragraph is strictly relevant to this board).
    ...artment has announced that the Minister has finally come to a decision to give up the cigarettes. The Minister has been a heavy smoker for many years and is believed to have got tired of hanging around in the open air outside the Department having a sly one when he should really be doing more paperwork.

    It now only remains to be decided which method the Minister will use to help him quit. To that end, a team of civil servants, consultants, advisers and sundry others has been assembled to weigh up the various options. A source close to the Minister said that there are a number of competing methods, and a decision will be made "within weeks".

    One of these is believed to be the Allen Carr method, which involves a one-off payment of about 250 euro for a 4-5 hour clinic. While the success rate is relatively high, the Minister is believed to be cautious about spending such a large amount of money in one go. However, an EU grant might be available under a scheme to improve the productivity of elected representatives in member states.

    A second option is using a nicotine patch or nicotine gum for a phased withdrawal from nicotine. This would involve a 10 week investment plan with funds of about 20 euro a week required over that period. The advantage of this is that it allows the Minister to know in advance what his nicotine budget will be for any particular week during the rollout of his withdrawal program. An EU grant might also be available for this.

    The third main option is just giving up the fags and being done with it, the so-called "willpower method". This requires no funding whatsoever and would involve large savings on current spending in both the short and long terms. The Department of Finance is believed to favour this option, though they are reportedly somewhat concerned that the Minister might still be suffering withdrawal symptoms during the next spending round negotiations. The downside to this method is that no EU funds are available for spending on polo mints and chewing gum.

    The Department is also believed to have been in touch with health chiefs from Germany to find out how they have helped their Ministers to give up in the past. Following a suggestion from a junior Minister at the Department, they are keen to see if German methods could be applied here.

    In other Government news, a team of civil servants, consultants, advisers and sundry others have continued work on the various options facing the Minister for Transport. They are weighing up the competing claims of projects like the rail interconnector, the Dublin metro, new LUAS lines, extensions to LUAS lines, the Western Rail Corridor and reopening the rail
    link between Dublin and Navan. A decision on any of these is not expected any time soon.


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