So just how will this ban work? Róisín Ingle talks to publicans and puntersabout how they'll cope with giving up on Monday
Micheál Martin is sipping a soft drink in Mulligans of Poolbeg Street in Dublin, chatting to members of Irish pop band Picturehouse and posing for cheesy photographs in support of the ban on smoking in the workplace. Pint of Guinness in hand, David Molloy, head of enforcement with the Office of Tobacco Control, and various colleagues look on. You are just wondering what is wrong with this picture, what's different about this most traditional of traditional Irish pubs, when you realise that nobody in the small lounge is smoking. Suddenly, the reality of what it will be like to spend time in Irish pubs and clubs and restaurants from Monday hits home like a refreshing blast of fresh air.
Outside the pub, three employees of an electrical contractor are waiting for the photo-call to finish so that they can go inside and fix a hand dryer in the toilets that is on the blink. As they wait in their van, they all light up cigarettes. The smoke billows out of the windows and Dubliner Christy Hynes, bar manager of Mulligans, mischievously puts a "smoke-free in the workplace sign" on the mirror. The men crack up laughing and pull hard on their cigarettes.
"You won't be doing that from Monday, boys," says Hynes.
And it may come as a surprise to those who don't believe the smoking ban is enforceable but he's right, they won't.
"There are some of my employees who don't smoke and they are making us enforce it, but we would have probably done it anyway," says their boss, electrical contractor Ronan Harte from Maynooth, Co Kildare. "So from Monday there will be no smoking in the van and we are all going to give up."
Hynes is looking forward to working in a smoke-free pub. "I can't wait for the ban to come in," he says. "We have got low ceilings, it gets very smoky in there. Some of our regulars are saying they won't come in anymore, but I think they will. Some of them are delighted and are saying they will give up." He doesn't envisage any problems enforcing the ban. "But it's impossible to know for sure until Monday," he says.
It's been said that smoking is one of the leading causes of statistics and they have come thick and fast since Minister Martin first mooted his controversial legislation last year, whether highlighting the dangers of second-hand tobacco smoke or the potential damage such a ban could do to the hospitality business.
The latest figures from the Office of Tobacco Control suggest that for all the fuss being made by publicans, the ban will work because the public want it to work. The majority of those questioned in the MRBI survey were in favour of the ban and of the 27 per cent of pub-goers who smoke, 61 per cent also voiced their support.
"The numbers who don't want to comply are a minority of a minority," says a spokesman for the Office of Tobacco Control.
"There will always be a small minority who break the law. Publicans already have to contend with people who are obstreperous or with underage drinkers.
"We are just asking them to add people who are smoking to this list."
But the mood among publicans, says Tadhg O'Sullivan of the Vintners Federation of Ireland - which has 6,000 members outside Dublin - is one of confusion. He says the guidelines distributed to the publicans aren't clear, that the ban is an Irish solution to an Irish problem.
O'Sullivan has seven packets of herbal cigarettes on his desk - "I wanted to see if they were available," he says - and is concerned that the herbal products which are not covered by the ban may be used to mask the consumption of other stimulants such as marijuana. "I think it will be unenforceable and will result in a serious loss of business for our members," he says. "This is a daft law brought in by daft people."
Asked where he will be when the ban comes in, O'Sullivan says: "Probably having a quiet cigarette and a pint somewhere."
Publicans including Jackie Healy Rae TD have been vociferous in their opposition to the ban, and his concerns are echoed, in varying degrees, in pubs across the country. Some lucky enough to have beer gardens or just an outside space with a heater are already advertising the fact. Those without are anxiously waiting to see what effect the ban has on business.
"It's just an extra headache to add to the ones publicans already have," says John Moriarty of John Benny's pub on the pier in Dingle, Co Kerry. "We will have to take plenty of Panadol on Monday morning." Like most publicans, he would have preferred the ban to have been phased in but he is confident that his colleagues will do their best to enforce the law.
What Moriarty is least looking forward to is the influx of what he calls "Noodie Naadies" in his bar. "Noodie Naadies are nosy people who haven't been to a pub in years and will just come in from Monday to see whether people are smoking.
"They are the kind of customers we don't want," Moriarty complains.
In Kelly's bar in the small village of Frosses, seven miles from Donegal town, Colm Kelly is not looking forward to Monday. Three-quarters of his customers are smokers and they have been voicing their disappointment at the impending ban all week. "This is how I make my living. I am not going to tell people not to break the law. I can't afford to," he says. He thinks it's "incredible" that from Monday you will be able to smoke in Irish pubs all over the world but not in pubs in Ireland and the constant references to New York where the smoking ban is in full swing grate with him. "I am not living in New York. I am living in Frosses, Co Donegal, and I don't care what they do over there," he says. He doesn't think the ban will be enforced. "I know every person in the pub, I would be surprised if anyone snitched on anyone else."
But that's exactly what customers all over the country are being asked to do. The guidelines for this new social dilemma - to snitch or not to snitch - are clear. According to the Office of Tobacco Control, a customer who sees somebody breaking the ban should inform the relevant member of staff whose name is written on the no-smoking poster provided by the Department of Health. This poster is required under the legislation, despite some publicans' complaints that it is not practical to put staff names on the signage.
If a person making a complaint is not satisfied with the response of the member of staff, then it is time to ring the low-tariff complaints hotline, already being described as the Ratline by some disgruntled smokers.
When a complaint is made, staff at the pub or club or restaurant must ask the smoker to stop and if they don't they should follow usual procedures for dealing with anti-social behaviour which may or may not involve seeking the assistance of the Garda.
"It's turning us into the smoking police," says Donal O'Keefe of the Licensed Vintners Association in Dublin, who is against the imposition of a €3,000 fine for publicans who persistently fail to deal with smokers. "The onus should be put on the smoker, he is the one breaking the law."
From Monday, 41 tobacco inspectors will be prowling venues to help enforce the ban while some 300 other environmental officials will provide back-up. In extreme cases, publicans who refuse to implement the ban could end up fighting for their right to retain their licences.
However, according to Annemarie Wade of Grant Thornton's HR consulting service: "Employers can take steps to protect themselves from such penalties by demonstrating they made 'all reasonable efforts' to ensure compliance with the regulations."
Down at the Dockers, a pub in Dublin's docklands in which the smoky stench is part of the establishment's character, the blue posters warning of the impending ban are already up on the walls.
Four men sit in the snug discussing the legislation. They have been coming to the Dockers every Thursday night for 10 years to play cards. Two of them smoke. Mickey (he didn't want to give his second name) gets through 20 cigarettes during the card session alone and is not looking forward to having to duck outside for a smoke between hands of Solo. "I am going to miss being able to have my cigarettes," he says. "I don't believe in this ban. By god, you can't live now. I keep joking that I am going to smoke until I get barred. Maybe I will."
The owner of the pub, Christy Murphy, says it's a hard one to call. "I'm thinking of situations where we have a group of 40 or 50 rugby fans who come regularly to us when there is a match on. They order pints, they light up, I tell them they can't smoke. So they put them out but a couple of pints later they light up again. What am I going to do? These are big guys," he says.
Murphy thinks people will stay at home more, watching matches on their widescreen TVs, having their cans of beer and their cigarettes on the sofa instead of the barstool.
The numbers of stay-at-home socialisers have been growing anyway, with drinks company Diageo claiming that in Ireland alcoholic drinks sold through pubs, bars and restaurants declined by 8 per cent in the second half of 2003 while sales in off-licences rose by 3 per cent. Now caterers and party organisers, knowing that private dwellings are exempt from the ban, are waiting to see whether the legislation leads to an increase in demand for social events in private homes.
Last night, a 'last cigar supper' took place at a casino in Dublin. "Our cigar club runs regular events like these where people get a chance to try fine cigars but in future we will have to run the events in private homes," says Belinda Gildea of the Decent Cigar Emporium on Grafton Street where, from Monday, customers will no longer be allowed to try cigars on the premises.
Down in Temple Bar, hordes of Scottish rugby fans, kilts blowing in the wind, are taking advantage of the fact that this is the last sporting weekend in Ireland where they can puff away with their pints. "It's hard to really believe we won't be able to smoke the next time we are over," says John from Glasgow. "It will be very strange but I don't think it would stop us coming back."
An English hen-party, who have somehow lost their hen, teeter past on spiky heels after being refused entry to one of the pubs. Only one of the party of seven young women is a smoker.
What do they think of the smoking ban? Will it prevent them coming here for a weekend in the future? "I think it might," says Gemma Skuse from Bristol, despite the fact that she gave up two weeks ago. "I think the ban is anti-social. What about human rights? It's not fair that people are going to be forced outside just to have a fag."
She has her own question and wants to know whether Dublin is the capital of "southern Ireland". When she is told that it is, she says "Ah, that's why it's so expensive." Negotiating the cobblestones, she says the price of drink is probably even more of a deterrent than the smoking ban. Food for thought for the embattled publicans.