Sales of public houses not affected by smoking ban

AS the smoke settles on the pub trade it emerged last night that record deals on public house sales are being closed.

The latest round of pub sales show pub values skyrocketing - despite a drop in sales and the smoking ban - €85 million was spent buying bars in Dublin alone since January.

Property consultants CB Richard Ellis Gunne’s review of the Dublin pub sale market since January shows that more bars, worth more money were sold in the first half of this year than in all of 2003.