THE Department of Health has allocated €190,000 in lottery funding towards clinical trials of the Allen Carr Easy Way to Stop Smoking programme.

Millions of people have given up cigarettes using the technique devised by Carr, a former chain smoker, but the programme has never been clinically tested before.

A London-born accountant and 100-a-day smoker for more than 30 years, Carr lobbied for two decades for the British health service, the NHS, to carry out trials of his cognitive technique, even writing an open letter to then prime minister Tony Blair, but the system he devised was never evaluated.

James Reilly, the former health minister, signed off on the €190,000 funding last summer despite reservations by officials, records released under the Freedom of Information Act