Smoking Ban: Amid loud protests from vintners and those in the hospitality sector, the workplace smoking ban came into effect at the end of March.
Publicans predicted the new law would be unworkable, that publicans would not be able to get well-oiled punters to stub out their cigarettes and that if punters did agree to go out on to the street to smoke, it was likely to contribute to an increase in public disorder.
They also predicted that fewer people would go to pubs for a drink and that as a result trade would be down, people would lose their jobs and pubs would close. A legal challenge seemed likely.
Nine months on, however, there have been rumblings of only two legal challenges, one by Cork-based hackney driver Liam O'Riordan, who claims the ban is unconstitutional, and one by a prisoner who is seeking early release on grounds that he should not be incarcerated in an institution where smoking is allowed.
Prisons, nursing homes, psychiatric hospitals, hospices and hotel bedrooms are among places exempted from the ban. The Department of Health believes both legal challenges will peter out.
The Office of Tobacco Control now says the ban enjoys widespread support and 94 per cent of premises inspected are complying with the law.
Fine Gael TD John Deasy was sacked from his party's front bench immediately after he lit up in the Dáil bar within days of the ban being introduced. He then refused to apologise. A total of 11 licensed premises have been prosecuted for defying the ban. Among the most high-profile of them was Galway pub Fibber Magee's, which flouted the ban openly in July. Its owners were fined a total of €9,400 at Galway District Court in October.
Now the Vintners Federation of Ireland (VFI) accepts the ban is likely to stay. And Joe Browne, who was president of the VFI when the ban was introduced, said: "I really think the majority of people don't want smoking back." In the meantime, though, the ban has had, he claimed, a dramatic effect on business. Turnover is down between eight and 20 per cent in different areas, he said, adding that 22 pubs had closed in Co Clare and another 17 in Co Tipperary since the ban came into force. Publicans, he said, would now be looking at new strategies to get people back into pubs. They wanted to lower the price of minerals and mineral water, he added.
The man responsible for introducing the ban, former minister for health Micheál Martin, has been fêted across Europe for having the foresight and determination to see the ban implemented. Ireland will go down in history as the first country in Europe to introduce a smoking ban, but other countries are now following suit.
Department of Finance figures indicate "the sale of duty paid cigarettes" was down almost 16 per cent at the end of October 2004 compared to the same period last year.
Eithne Donnellan