Pub smoking ban will not proceed, say vintners

THE total ban on smoking in pubs will definitely not go ahead on January 1 next, the country’s leading publicans’ representative confidently predicted last night.

Describing the smoking ban as unenforceable and unpoliceable, Vintners Federation of Ireland chief executive Tadg O’Sullivan said a compromise arrangement will be struck with the Minister for Health Micheál Martin.

But as publicans gear up to fight the ban, Mr Martin insists he is pressing ahead with his plans to ban smoking in all workplaces, including pubs, to prevent deaths from passive smoking.

According to Mr O’Sullivan, vintners’ groups are putting forward their own proposals to deal with the issue and expect them to be accepted in some form. The smoking ban is a knee-jerk reaction to a link

between Environmental Tobacco Smoke and death among bar workers based on falsehoods, he said.

“I believe there is plenty of room for compromise. We will be able to prove to him that it is unnecessary. That is not a climbdown. It is a recognition of reality rather than a diktat. I have great confidence in the Minister for Health,” Mr O’Sullivan said.

The effects of the smoking ban in New York will be replicated in this country if implemented with businesses being devastated, jobs being lost and public disorder rising, he added.

But stating that the minister has been extremely clear and upfront on his intentions, a Department of Health spokesman said there was no question of Mr Martin giving in to the publicans demands.

“The minister still intends to proceed with the ban on smoking in workplaces from January 1. He has always been very strong on this issue. He is certainly not going to water it down,” the spokesperson said.

In an interview in today’s Irish Examiner, Mr O’Sullivan also said the Minister for Justice Michael McDowell’s decision to move discrimination cases to the district courts was necessary as the State equality bodies had failed to deliver justice.

“The entire equality industry has lost the confidence of its victims. We believe some of the decisions have been outrageous.

“The powers given to these unqualified equality officers are even greater than the district court, yet they are not qualified judges. The district court is open and transparent. It is not just behind closed doors where the decision is handed down eight weeks later,” he said.