Publican hopes he loses smoking injunction case

A PUBLICAN slapped with an injunction stopping customers lighting up outside his premises says he hopes he loses his court case this week to prove the smoking ban is unworkable.

Tom Magher was stunned to find his pub the subject of a temporary order preventing smokers gathering on the path outside his premises on the grounds that they were causing a nuisance.

While he will go to court on Wednesday to try to have the order lifted, he says it would be better if he was turned down as he believes the Government would then be forced into a smoke-ban U-turn.

“Publicans can only go along with the ban by sending customers outside to smoke but, if they’re stopped going outside too, they won’t have customers. The Minister for Health isn’t going to shut down every pub in the country, is he?”

Mr Magher said the Licensed Vintners Association had pledged to cover the cost of his legal battle, while the Vintners Federation of Ireland said last night it would watch the case with interest. Both bodies fear the action could be copied all over the country by businesses and residents situated close to pubs, effectively outlawing smoking in the vicinity of any licensed premises.

The injunction was granted last Friday to businessman John Furey, owner of the Eurospar supermarket beside Mr Magher’s Hartstown House pub in Clonsilla, west Dublin. Mr Furey could not be contacted for comment yesterday and it is not known what incidents he will cite to convince the court to continue the injunction permanently.

Mr Magher said a permanent ban would be unenforceable. “All weekend we told customers they can’t smoke outside and they laughed at us.

“We can’t stop them. If they have one foot on the path and one on the road, are they smoking illegally? Where does it stop?”

Regulars turned out in force to show their support yesterday but an ongoing injunction could cost Mr Magher business.

He insisted he was willing to lose out in the short term if the case forced the smoke-ban controversy to a head once and for all, although he added he would be happier again if Mr Furey dropped his action.

“I said I’d give €1,000 to the Vincent de Paul, if he walked away from this, and I wouldn’t raise it again if he gave €1,000 to charity. That would be the most sensible way of dealing with this.”