North moves to ban smoking later this year

SMOKING is to be banned in all enclosed public places and restricted in pubs in the North, it was announced yesterday.

The Northern Ireland Health Minister Shaun Woodward announced his plan during a keynote address on the future of the health service yesterday.

“The remaining few months will be about whether it is a total ban or a partial ban. And we have to examine how to enforce such a ban,” he told the chief executives of Northern Ireland’s health boards and trusts at a hotel in Stormont.