GENE ANDERSON,
Madam, - Frank Fell, chief executive of the Licenced Vintners Association, obviously needs a refresher course in economics: he states that a pub smoking ban will result in lost revenue to the economy, giving British Columbian statistics as his evidence.
Irish money supply among the public will continue to be the same irrespective of the forthcoming smoking ban. Purchases of different goods and services within the economy will be of similar economic benefit through revenue collected and jobs created in an adjusted economic climate.
Mr Fell's knowledge of medical matters is also very limited as he states that bar staff breathing polluted air are as healthy as workers breathing clean air unpolluted by tobacco smoke.
As a publican myself I am aware of several potential customers, including members of the local choir, reluctant to revisit my premises. They feel stressed, and complain of respiratory problems not to mention clothing soiled by tobacco smoke.
I have an up-to-date and expensive air extraction system, but it cannot guarantee unpolluted air. It operates to the detriment of the central heating and gas fire. My heating bill is three times what it should be due to the constant pull of warm air from the building in an effort to change and clean the atmosphere for the benefit of customers. The net result is a loss of revenue for the pub on heating bills and subsequently lost jobs for bar staff; it is basic economics.
The only monetary beneficiaries of the present situation in my bar are the American based multinational companies of both tobacco and oil. - Yours, etc.,
GENE ANDERSON, Andersons Thatch Pub, Carrick-on-Shannon, Co Leitrim.