Forest Eireann

Forest Éireann is an Irish lobby group that claims to speak on behalf of smokers.[1] It aims to replicate the activities of its parent group, FOREST, in the UK,[1] an organisation that gets 96% of its funding from the tobacco industry, including Gallaher PLC.[2] In September 2010 Forest Éireann attracted its first news headlines by publishing a report claiming that the ban on indoor smoking in pubs hads been the cause of a decline in trade experienced by Irish pubs, and calling for the ban to be relaxed.[3][4]

The parent organisation has been characterised by academic sources as a front group, as it was organised and funded by the tobacco industry and has generated little grassroots interest.[5] According to internal memos, the tobacco industry designed FOREST to be controlled "through a third party, so that there would be no direct contact between tobacco company personnel or TAC and the director."[5]

References
  1. "About Forest Éireann". Archived from the original on 2010-09-13. Retrieved 2010-09-20.
  2. "Select Committee on Health Minutes of Evidence". 2000-01-20. Archived from the original on 2012-08-19. Retrieved 2010-09-20.
  3. "Pubs' plea to ease smoking ban in Republic of Ireland". Belfast Telegraph. 2010-09-20. Retrieved 2010-09-20.
  4. "Smokers' group urges Government to relax ban as 1,000 pubs forced to close". Irish Independent. 2010-09-20. Retrieved 2010-09-20.
  5. Smith EA, Malone RE (June 2007). "'We will speak as the smoker': the tobacco industry's smokers' rights groups". Eur J Public Health. 17 (3): 306–13. doi:10.1093/eurpub/ckl244. PMC 2794244. PMID 17065174.
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