Smoking ban will also extinguish jobs

UP to 10,000 drinks industry jobs are in danger if the Government imposes a blanket ban on pub smoking from January 1, 2004, it has been claimed.

With 10,000 pubs in Ireland, that level of job losses is a very real threat, warned Alf Smiddy, managing director of Beamish & Crawford, who recently called for a phased introduction of the ban over a three- to five-year period.

But Mr Smiddy, who is also on the executive council of IBEC, the major employers' body, warned yesterday that thousands of jobs across the Irish economy will continue to be lost unless the overall competitiveness issue is resolved as an urgent priority.