Not so long ago bigoted employers were free to discriminate against minority groups at will. The Irish were often the victims of such discrimination, the sound of NO IRISH NEED APPLY ringing in their ears as they went seeking employment abroad. Now it would seem the Irish, those that smoke at least will be hearing the familiar refrain once again, this time in their own homeland - NO SMOKERS NEED APPLY

A Dublin based firm, recruiting telesales staff for their e-commerce business placed an advertisement in a newspaper stating that 'smokers need not apply'. Director Philip Tobin feels smokers are time wasters, smelly, suffer from illnesses and are unintelligent. Phillip Tobin, director of Dot Com Directories considers smoking, "as interfering with the standards he requires to do the job." He Explains, "I'm talking about smoking breaks for one thing, but not only that, the smell, their intelligence, illnesses are all factors. That's why the line was there, smokers will not be employed so there is no point in anyone wasting their time or ours by coming in for an interview." His biggest difficulty with smokers it seems is their level of intelligence saying  "If these people can ignore so many warnings and all that evidence then they haven't got the level of intelligence that I am looking for."

Mr Tobin explained his views when state broadcaster RTE afforded him airtime on Gerry Ryan's radio programme to spew his bigoted thoughts on smokers. We know of at least one irate smoker who was listening at the time, and was refused airtime after he rang the programme to counter Phillip Tobin's outrageous assertions.

It seems in Ireland's inclusive society that cherishes all people smokers are an exception not deemed worthy of the protection against victimisation and discrimination afforded others. Smokers are clearly deemed second class citizens which can be discriminated against by the state, business and individuals as they see fit. Mr Tobin was quiet confident other firms would follow his example "If I get away with this, there is no doubt in my mind that other firms will follow suit and I certainly hope that is the case."