The Irish Hospitality Industry Alliance has criticised Health Minister Micheál Martin for failing to tell the public when his proposed smoking ban will take effect.

BUSINESS is booming in New York’s bars and restaurants with tax receipts up 12% since the introduction of the city’s smoking ban.

Publicans have welcomed Government plans to impose fines on anyone caught smoking in pubs when the ban comes into effect next year.

The Health Minister is being asked to include a hardship waiver as part of the smoking ban legislation.

THE pro-smoking ban health and trade union lobby, representing at least 1.1 million people in Ireland, wish to express our deepest disappointment and frustration at the decision of the Vintners Federation of Ireland (VFI) and the Irish Hospitality Industry Alliance (IHIA) to continue to oppose and obstruct this vital public health initiative.

PUBLIC confidence in Health Minister Micheál Martin’s ability to deliver the controversial ban on smoking in the workplace is visibly waning following his last-minute decision to exempt hotel bedrooms, hospices, psychiatric hospitals and nursing homes from the legislation.

HEALTH MINISTER Micheál Martin's smoking ban last night looked vulnerable to a raft of legal challenges.

The Irish Hospitality Industry Alliance has reportedly threatened to launch a legal challenge to the Government's proposed all-out ban on smoking in the workplace.

THE smoking ban will go ahead from January 26 next year, but prisons are set to be excluded from the prohibition to prevent security and conduct problems.

The Irish Hospitality Industry Alliance says it may be forced to seek a judicial review over the smoking in the workplace ban.

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.

DESPITE all the evidence to the contrary, vintner representatives and the Irish Hospitality Industry Alliance constantly suggest to politicians and the public that ventilation systems are the answer to dealing with the health effects of passive smoke.

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.

PUBLICANS’ proposals to allow smoking in half of a pub’s premises and to exempt up to 1,000 pubs with less than five employees from the smoking ban were dismissed out of hand by Health Minister Micheál Martin yesterday.

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.

HEALTH MINISTER Mícheál Martin is facing increasing opposition from TDs within his own party over plans to ban smoking in pubs.

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.

The Irish Heart Foundation has questioned the accuracy of surveys highlighting the negative economic consequences of banning smoking in pubs and restaurants.

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

SMOKERS face jail or heavy fines for lighting up in pubs when the ban is imposed on January 1.

THEY came in their hundreds, even in wheelchairs, with badges, banners and chants, to protest at New York’s strict no-smoking laws which became statewide yesterday.

Warnings that Ireland’s proposed ban on smoking in public places would lead to major job losses were today rejected by the Heart Foundation.

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

A coalition of interests from across the Irish hospitality sector is taking its fight against the proposed ban on smoking across the Atlantic.