Ireland bans smoking in pubs and restaurants

By Thomas MacMahon Dublin

Ireland will become the first country in the European Union to ban smoking in all pubs and restaurants when new regulations come into force on 29 April as part of a wider ban on smoking in the workplace.

Exemptions have been granted to prisons, nursing homes, psychiatric hospitals, and hotel bedrooms after extensive lobbying, but smoking rooms in all other workplaces, including hospitals, will have to close. A worker's only option will be to smoke outside.

The onus will then be on the manager or owner of the premises to ensure that it is smoke free. A fine of up to €3000 (£2000; $3700) and three months imprisonment could be imposed on those who break the law; the smoker can also be sanctioned.

Health organisations and trade unions representing more than a quarter of the population have welcomed the ban, including the Irish Medical Organisation and the Irish College of General Practitioners. Luke Clancy, chairman of the antismoking lobby group ASH Ireland, has described it as "the most important health initiative this century by an Irish Government."

Predictably publicans have been less enthusiastic, but their claims that up to 64 000 jobs could be lost in the hospitality industry as a consequence of falling trade have been dismissed by the minister for health and children, Micheál Martin. "This is a health issue and the licensed trade should be considering the 70% of customers that do not smoke, that may be attracted into their premises due to the smoke-free measures," he said.

For more information visit www.smokefreeatwork.ie and www.otc.ie