A hotel owned by Donegal football manager Brian McEniff, has been consistently flouting the smoking ban, it emerged tonight.
Secret filming revealed customers lighting up unchallenged in the Holyrood Hotel, Bundoran, Co Donegal, over a period of three weeks.
The footage will embarrass the McEniff Hotel Group, owned by a family of Fianna Fail supporters and local politicians. Mr McEniff, chief executive, said he was annoyed by the revelations but claimed it was out of his control.
"We have done our best to get the ban in and comply with the law," he said. "But if people come in and flout the rules there's nothing I can do about it."
Group chairman, his brother Sean McEniff, is vice-chair of Donegal County Council and chairman of the North West Tourism Authority.
But he denied any involvement with the Holyrood Hotel, claiming it was Brian and his son Seanie who run the show.
"I was quite certain that it was being complied with myself," he said. "I want to say very clearly I'm very disappointed that it's not - I didn't encourage anyone to break the ban but I do feel there should be a constitutional case taken against the ban."
The hotel was filmed by Sky News Ireland over a period of three weeks in July. The footage reveals customers in the Holyrood Hotel nightclub smoking in an adjacent room on a number of occasions.
The McEniff family owns 11 hotels in five counties as well as luxury holiday homes in Co Donegal.
Various publicans mounted a high profile rebellion against the ban last month, claiming a disastrous loss of business since the fledgling law was introduced.
Ronan Lawless, who owns Galway pub Fibber Magees, is launching a high court constitutional challenge, claiming he can no longer sustain profitable business.
PA