Group raises €10,000 to fight smoke ban

AN IRISH group spearheading a European legal challenge to the workplace smoking ban has managed to raise close to €10,000 in just 10 days to fight its case.

However, the Government has promised to fight fire with fire, saying that any challenge to the ban will be “defended robustly”.

Close to 100 pubs around the country are stocking fundraising lighters produced and distributed by the European Smokers Against Discrimination (ESAD) group. It says the number of pubs joining the scheme continues to grow on a near daily basis.

People in Britain, Germany, Spain, Holland and Austria are also joining the movement, fearing the ban will spread to their pubs in the future.

“We’ve had a fantastic response from pubs and the general public,” according to Irish campaign organiser, James Croke. “We’ve enlisted Dr Anders Becks, a renowned Dutch barrister, to put together our case and will be lodging our papers with the European Court as soon as possible.”

The Department of Health says it is confident the ban will not be overturned, even in Europe.

“The minister has always said he expected a legal challenge to the ban,” a department spokesperson said. “Our legal advice is that our case will stand. Any such action will be defended robustly.”

In the past week, the lighters, which first went on sale in Waterford early last week, have been distributed to pubs throughout Kilkenny, Carlow, Wexford and Tipperary. And from this week, they will be available throughout Cork and Galway, with plans to deliver them into other counties in the coming weeks.

An accountant and members of the general public are on the board of the Irish ESAD and it hopes a solicitor will be drafted in over the coming days. Two publicans who had been involved have stepped down, to allow for greater representation from the general public, Mr Croke said.

“We had hoped that the Health Minister would relax the ban and allow smoking in controlled areas in pubs while we prepared our legal challenge in the European court. But that’s not now going to happen.

“We have stepped up our campaign and are trying to get our case together as soon as we possibly can. We have been dealing with a non-compromising government which is seeking to impose rather than implement this ban.”

Lodging papers with the European Court will cost €50,000. After that, the costs could escalate towards €500,000, the campaigners understand.