Smoking ban woes won’t go away for Bertie

THE Taoiseach’s failure to stem internal revolt over the workplace smoking ban was highlighted again last night as another junior minister openly flouted the Government line.

Pat “The Cope” Gallagher publicly threw down the gauntlet saying he wanted the full ban suspended for three years.

“We need to come up with a compromise so that certain changes in pubs can be put in place to accommodate people who smoke. We should come back and look at it again after three years or so,” he said.

There have been signals from Government this week that sustained opposition from within the Fianna Fáil parliamentary party ranks would be inevitable. However, Bertie Ahern was expected to make an attempt to shore up the party line and quell dissent during a meeting with all the party’s junior ministers last night.

The Government has been facing flak on the issue on a daily basis.

In the wake of the resignation of Western Health Board chairman Val Hanley on Monday, the North West Tourism Board now says it is also looking for compromise and will seek to raise the issue at this weekend’s Fianna Fáil Ard Fheis in Kilkenny.

However, Health Minister Micheál Martin refused to budge, declining demands from the Vintners Federation of Ireland (VFI) and the Licensed Vintners Association (LVA) for compromise.

Both groups emerged disillusioned from meetings with Mr Martin last night with the LVA accusing the Minister of being overly fundamentalist.

“This meeting was brought forward by the Minister to give the illusion of consultation. There is none. The Minister is now backing the LVA into a totally unpalatable and unnecessary position. The proposed ban will result in up to 8,000 redundancies,” said chief executive Donall O’Keeffe.

A spokeswoman for Mr Martin rejected the LVA’s assertions that jobs would be lost and said LVA calls for compromise were not realistic. “Their proposals for compromise were unworkable,” she said.

Addressing a National Heart alliance workshop in Dublin yesterday, Mr Martin indicated that only prisons, and to a more limited degree, psychiatric institutions, would be exempted from the ban. The text of the regulation introducing the ban is expected to be published in the next week.

A Government spokeswoman last night said Mr Ahern would not stop people voicing their opinions and pointed out that despite publicised opposition no one had yet voiced their intention to withhold their support from the Government on the smoking ban.

Meanwhile, Labour Affairs Minister Frank Fahey yesterday climbed down from his position of seeking a compromise on the ban. The Government spokeswoman said Mr Fahey had now committed himself to Government policy.

In a statement, Mr Fahey who is on holidays in Spain, said his concerns over the ban related to a number of technical issues only.

“I support Government Policy and will implement proposals as handed down by Government including in relation to the ban on smoking,” he said.