30% of retailers breaching smoking ban, say inspectors

TWENTY retailers were prosecuted last year for selling cigarettes to children, but inspectors discovered three out of every 10 shops are breaching anti-smoking laws.

And, following a High Court ruling last year, environmental health officers can use children as bait to detect rogue retailers.

Retailers, however, had unsuccessfully claimed the use of children by inspectors constituted “entrapment”.

According to the Office of Tobacco Control, 203 out of 684 retailers were found in 2007 to have sold tobacco to persons aged under 18.

An anti-smoking group expressed concern at the high level of tobacco sales to minors. ASH Ireland chairwoman Dr Angie Brown said such levels were “totally unacceptable”.

Overall, shop inspections resulted in a total of 20 successful prosecutions for selling tobacco to minors, but a further five cases were dismissed.

Meanwhile, the OTC’s annual report also shows 5% of all business premises are still in breach of the ban on smoking in workplaces.

A total of 1,360 out of almost 29,000 offices and buildings inspected by environmental health officers in 2007 were non-compliant with the legislation.

Pubs and clubs, it emerged, continue to be the worst offenders with 13% still found to allow smoking on their premises.

The figures, however, show a minor improvement on 2006 figures when 14% of licensed premises breached the legislation.

Overall, national compliance levels remain the same at 95%.

Inspections led to 43 prosecutions for non-compliance with smoke-free workplace legislation and resulted in 49 convictions — 38 prosecutions related to licensed premises and four related to taxi companies.

OTC chief executive Éamonn Rossi said the attention of health officials was directed towards tackling the issue of children and smoking.

The OTC’s focus will remain on attempting to prevent people taking up smoking in their childhood and teenage years.