Publican hopes sky’s the limit with inside-outside room

A PUBLICAN who openly flouted the smoking ban earlier this year has come up with the ideal solution - he has taken part of the roof off his pub.

Gareth Kendellen, owner of Paddy the Farmer’s pub in Cork city, claims he was going out of business as a result of the ban. His solution was to open an indoor smoking room.

Smokers in the pub can now admire the night sky from inside the pub while enjoying a smoke.

Mr Kendellen spent €20,000 building a 6ft by 9ft internal smoking room.

Builders Owen and Noel Cafferkey removed a section of the pub’s roof and built the smoking room at the end of the bar. The structure has been inspected by the Southern Health Board’s director of tobacco control and has been given the all-clear.

Mr Kendellen said it was either open this smoking room or close the bar in six months.

“Business is down by almost 20% since the introduction of the ban. I also had to lay off two full-time staff,” he said.

“The response from people to the smoking room has been great, especially from female customers. They said they felt humiliated being forced to smoke outside. I have no yard, and had no option,” he said.

Mr Kendellen was one of four Munster publicans who allowed customers to smoke on their premises in breach of legislation for two days last July. This followed the highly publicised breach of the ban by Fibber Magee’s pub in Galway.

The Southern Health Board launched immediate investigations into the incidents at Paddy the Farmer’s in July.

Mr Kendellen ended his protests on July 10 following visits from environmental health officers and under threat of a €6,000 fine for failing to display no-smoking signs and for permitting smoking in his bar.

Yesterday, a no-smoking sign was displayed prominently on the pub’s front door. “I felt strongly enough at the time that nothing was being done about the situation,” Mr Kendellen said.

So what happens if it rains. Will a temporary roof be put in place?

“There will be brollies available. We can’t do anything about a temporary roof because due to legislation it’s a four-walled structure with the roof off, so it can’t be covered, even by a canopy,’’ Mr Kendellen said.