Smoking ban police to raid defiant pub

HEALTH officers will today raid a Galway pub which has become the first to openly flout the smoking ban introduced in March.

Ciaran Levanzin, who along with Ronan Lawless runs Fibber Magees pub in Eyre Square, said business has fallen by 63% and he has no choice but to take on the authorities.

"It was either do this or lay off the staff and go out of business," Mr Levanzin said yesterday. "I was applauded by customers when I put the ashtrays back out."

The ban, he said, had alienated over half of the pub's customers. "This is not a publicity stunt, if I'm fined or lose my licence, so be it. I've had to do this to survive," he said. "We are going out of business one way or the other."

But a spokesperson for Health Minister Micheál Martin said the local health board would take whatever steps were necessary to make sure Fibber Magees would toe the legal line on smoking in the workplace.

This morning, environmental health officers with the Western Health Board, whose job it is to enforce the ban, will be paying an official visit to the bar.

If customers are smoking on the premises the publicans will be issued with a warning. If the smoking continues after that, the pub owners could face prosecution, which carries a €3,000 fine and the possible loss of the licence.

The challenge by Fibber Magees comes just as Galway is preparing for its busiest time of the year. The Galway Arts Festival started last night and the Galway races are getting under way in the coming fortnight.

The Vintners Federation of Ireland (VFI) warned yesterday that many rural pubs across the country are facing ruin unless a slump in alcohol sales is addressed.

"Since the smoking ban was introduced in March, publicans have reported an average 15-25% drop in business, with daytime trade taking a particular hit," VFI president Seamus O'Donoghue said.

Crippling tax laws and a fall in sales for the first time in years could lead to pubs with small customer bases facing closure, he warned, adding: "Once the summer season ends and the weather worsens, further loss of business is inevitable."

The group said new figures showed beer consumption had fallen by 2.7%, with spirits down by over a fifth and alcopops down by 15.5%, adding that the fall was the first to hit the industry for several years.

Wine consumption, however, had risen by just under 9%. Industry experts have suggested the increase is due to more off-licence purchasing as more drink at home due to the ban.

The VFI, which represents some 6,000 publicans, blames the combination of the smoking ban, over-the-top tax and excise duty and industry price increases which they cannot control for publicans' ills.