Ahern under fire for vintners comments

THE Taoiseach’s outspoken comments about ‘disgraceful’ publicans was yesterday slammed by the Vintners Federation of Ireland as “scandalous”.

In an angry response, VFI executive member Val Hanley called on the Taoiseach to withdraw remarks he made about the mass meeting of publicans in Portlaoise on Tuesday, which he said were a total misrepresentation of what had been said.

Mr Hanley, who is also a Fianna Fáil councillor in Galway City, said that the organisation had convened an emergency meeting for tomorrow, to decide on its response to the Taoiseach’s remarks.

Mr Ahern had said earlier yesterday that the apparent threat by VFI members to refuse to pay VAT was disgraceful and illegal. In uncharacteristically strong language, he accused the publicans of being lethargic to the fact that 7,000 people a year die in Ireland from smoking-related causes. In addition, he chided them for previously raising false alarms by saying that pubs would have to close because of tighter drink driving laws. Mr Hanley said that the meeting had not called for a refusal to pay VAT, rather for a protest to be registered by altering the method of payment.

“His comment about publicans making loads of money was an insult. Many pubs in the country have to close their doors at 7pm and border pubs are being squeezed out by pubs in Northern Ireland. If the Government and the Taoiseach are so concerned about 7,000 deaths from smoking, they should go ahead and ban the substance entirely. Labour leader Pat Rabbitte claimed the regulations will apply to open-air extensions to pubs, because they also form part of the workplace. He said the rules raised the bizarre scenario that a farmer would be banned from smoking in his fields because they are his place of work. Mr Rabbitte said this was because ‘place of work’ did not specify enclosed premises.