Angry publicans’ mass meeting in show of strength

ANGRY publicans are to stage a mass meeting next week, in a show of strength against the ban on smoking in the workplace.

The Vintners Federation of Ireland (VFI) has urged all of its 6,000 members to converge on the Heritage Hotel in Portlaoise next Tuesday to send a message to Health Minister Micheal Martin that their opposition to his legislation is not waning.

The move follows the release by the Health and Safety Authority (HSA) yesterday of its first set of recommendations as to how the ban should operate, when it comes into effect next January 26.

The HSA told Minister for Labour Affairs Frank Fahey that he should categorise environmental tobacco smoke, or second hand smoke, as a carcinogen or cancer-causing substance, and that he should define the workplace as any enclosed workplace.

Parts of private homes that are used solely for domestic purposes such as the private quarters of a bed and breakfast are exempt from the ban, and special arrangements will be made for exceptional circumstances in prisons, where the enforcement of the ban threatens security and order.

HSA chief executive Tom Beegan said detailed definitions and procedures for exceptional circumstances would be drawn up in the coming days in consultation with the Prisons Service.

He also said further discussions would take place with those responsible for running psychiatric hospitals, but he did not envisage any exemptions for nicotine-addicted patients. Mr Beegan added that the HSA would publish enforcement guidelines for publicans.

The VFI rejected the recommendations and called a special general meeting of its entire membership to discuss the implications of what it described as an "unnecessary and unenforceable" ban.

VFI president Joe Browne said his members were frustrated following what he called "months of dictation rather than consultation" from the Department of Health. He said the meeting would give ordinary members a chance to raise their concerns and voice their anxieties.

The decision to hold the meeting came a day after a threat by the VFI to stall the ban, by seeking a judicial review in the High Courts, with the ultimate aim of having it overturned.

Law lecturer Tom O'Malley, NUI Galway, said yesterday a challenge would be legally possible, but the grounds on which it could be based were narrow. "If they were to fight it on constitutional grounds there would be a very direct conflict of interests. They might find something about interfering with their right to earn a livelihood but the other side would argue that the health or even the lives of people are jeopardised by smoking, and it would be very difficult to make a compelling argument against that."

Dr O'Malley said the most likely course of action would be to try to find a procedural glitch in the wording or enactment of the legislation which would render it unlawful, but he said the Attorney General's office would have worked to prevent or eliminate any such weaknesses, before the legislation was published.