The Irish Hospitality Industry Alliance has claiimed the proposal to make private houses subject to the smoking ban could cost householders up to €2,000.

The Irish Hospitality Industry Alliance has claimed that many householders will be forced to undertake risk and safety assessments of their homes under new anti-smoking regulations proposed by the Health and Safety Authority.

A prominent figure in the campaign against the ban on smoking in pubs and restaurants today accepted he would have to stub out his cigarettes from January 1.

Angry publicans are planning to give politicians a taste of their own medicine by banning smoking at pubs and bars during a party conference next month.

The Irish Hospitality Industry Alliance has welcomed Health Minister Micheál Martin’s plans to exempt some facilities from the proposed ban on smoking in all Irish workplaces.

The Irish Hospitality Industry Alliance has criticised Health Minister Micheál Martin for not meeting with bar and restaurant owners during his visit to New York this week.

IT looks like there’ll be no smoke and no fire at Fianna Fáil’s pow-wow in Sligo tomorrow as the party’s chief anti-smoking ban braves will be on distant plains.

THE January 1 starting date for the blanket smoking ban was cast into doubt yesterday after the Taoiseach said some details still need to be finalised.

HEALTH Minister Micheál Martin has rejected a call for compromise on the smoking ban, despite an A&L Goodbody Consultants’ report produced yesterday which claims up to 64,000 people could face redundancy as a result of his plans.

Former Irish international rugby star Peter Clohessy added his voice today to growing opposition to a smoking ban due to be introduced in pubs.

The Mandate trade union, which represents thousands of Irish bar workers, has accused the Irish Hospitality Industry Alliance of scaremongering in relation to the Government's plans to ban smoking in all workplaces next year.

A group lobbying for an easing in the proposed smoking ban is calling on the Minister for Health to publish the legal advice he has received on the ban.

The main trade union for bar workers clashed tonight with a campaign to force a Government climbdown over plans to outlaw smoking in the workplace from the start of next year.

A GROUP opposed to the introduction of the smoking ban is commissioning an independent report to assess the economic fallout from the move.

HEALTH MINISTER Micheál Martin is preparing to take on opponents of his pub smoking ban and is getting together his own anti-smoking lobby.