More smokers lighting up at work

Rules introduced five years ago banned smoking in all public places, including restaurants, cafés and the workplace.

Yet the survey conducted for anti-smoking group Droits des Non-Fumeurs (Non-Smokers Rights) found that 64 percent of those questioned said they had seen people smoking in places where it is banned.

A big jump was recorded in incidents of people smoking at work. 

In 2008, a similar survey found that just eight percent of people had been exposed to cigarette smoke at work. By 2009 this had risen to 21 percent.

The most recent survey, conducted in December, found that 36 percent of those questioned had been in the presence of people smoking while at work.

A third of people also said they'd been exposed to smoke in cafés and restaurants.

The organisation is calling for an increase in the number of inspections to stamp out the rise.

A report in June from two public health bodies said that the number of daily smokers has risen again in the last five years.

The report found that the proportion of daily smokers went up from 28 percent in 2005 to 30 percent in 2010, with women showing the highest rise. 

Figures released earlier in January suggested that recent stiff price rises might be starting to have some impact, with a 5 percent drop in the number of cigarettes sold in the final quarter of 2011. 

The drop coincided with price rises that have put a packet of cigarettes above the €6 level.

Health experts say it is too early to say whether the drop in smoking is permanent or just a temporary drop in sales, which often happens after a price rise.

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