The Western Health Board will seek a High Court injunction tomorrow against the proprietors of the Fibber Magees pub in Eyre Square, Galway, unless it stops breaking the workplace smoking ban.
The board said last night it had served a formal notice on the proprietors, stating that if they did not desist in allowing breaches of the Public Health (Tobacco) Act 2004, it would make an application to the High Court for an injunction restraining the breach.
The owners have been given until 4 p.m. today to comply with the law. A health board spokeswoman said two warnings had already been served on the proprietors during a 36-hour period to 6 p.m. yesterday but smoking has continued on the premises.
Earlier yesterday the Minister for Health, Mr Martin, said"every legal avenue" would be taken by the health board to ensure compliance with the workplace smoking ban.
Mr Martin made his comments as the joint owner of the Fibber Magees pub, Mr Ronan Lawless, said he would extend his challenge to the smoking ban to his other licensed premises in the city.
Customers in Cooke's bar in Galway, also owned by Mr Lawless, were smoking inside the premises last night.
And yesterday a pub in Cobh, Co Cork, also defied the ban by allowing smoking in a special room at the back of the bar.
The Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, said last night he was "angry and disappointed" but, according to the Government spokeswoman, Mr Ahern had "full confidence" in the ability of the authorities to police the ban and penalise publicans who did not comply with it.
"The majority of people are in favour of compliance with the ban. This development is unhelpful and unnecessary," the spokeswoman said. "We would be very concerned about it spreading. We would say now that the authorities have to put in place the penalties that they have been given and to do it quickly. The Taoiseach has every confidence that they will do that," she said.
On RTÉ Radio yesterday the Minister for Health described the decision by the joint owners of Fibber Magees pub to allow smoking in a designated area as an "affront" to the Irish people. He had no concrete evidence that publicans had experienced a loss of earnings as a result of the ban's introduction last March. A "downward trend" in sales in pubs had preceded the ban's introduction, Mr Martin noted.
He said he had no intention of reviewing the legislation. "You can take it from me that there will be no holds barred in taking this head on," he said of the Galway challenge.
But the chairman of the Vintners' Federation of Ireland Galway city and county branch, Mr Paul O'Grady, challenged this assertion and criticised the "inaction" of the health board since the Eyre Square pub allowed smoking upstairs on Monday night.
"We have been told that health board environmental health officers have visited the premises, have carried out an investigation and have issued the owners with an official warning,"Mr O'Grady said. "To my knowledge, no officers have identified themselves if they were on the premises, and no official warning has been given to the owners."
Mr O'Grady, who represents more than 500 members in Galway, said he could not condone the action of the owners of Fibber Magees but he had sympathy with them.
The VFI president, Mr Seamus O'Donoghue, said that the federation did not support any breach, but appreciated the frustration of members who had experienced a negative impact on business.
