Publicans vote to defy smoking ban

October 2003

County Wexford vintners are preparing to flout the law from January mext by refusing to implement the Government’s proposed ban on smoking in pubs.

Over 200 publicans voted unanimously on Monday to ignore the ban, when it is introduced in January, unless the Government also bans the sale of tobacco and all tobacco products in the country.

Des Whelan, the County PRO of the VFI and a member of the National Executive Committee, chaired Monday’s meeting, and said that there was an overwhelming feeling of dismay amongst publicans to the ‘intransigence’ of Minister Michéal Martin.

‘We have consistently stated that a complete ban on smoking in public houses is simply not feasible and cannot be enforced. We have offered numerous proposals of compromise to the Minister, but once again, he has chosen to ignore us,’ he said.

With 200 out of 280 VFI members in Wexford attending Monday’s meeting, the unanimous vote represents nearly three quarters of all publicans in the county, and was a clear indicator of the extreme dissatisfaction amongst the licensed trade to the proposed legislation.

County Wexford VFI have been agreeable to introduce new state of the art extraction systems into their pubs, on a phased basis, by 2005. The vintners also believe they cannot enforce any ban while the government still allows the legal sale of tobacco and tobacco products in the Republic of Ireland.

‘We will implement this ban if the Minister also bans the sale of tobacco. Otherwise, we feel that it will not be possible for us to implement. We won’t be able to go up to people and say ‘you can’t smoke here’. We won’t have a customer left if we do,’ he said.

‘We don’t want to have to break the law, but we do want the Minister to see sense,’ he added.

He also added that recent independent research by Lansdowne Market Research showed that 84% of bar staff are in favour of compromise rather than a ban, while 60% of ordinary Irish people are against a complete ban.

Mr Whelan also pointed to what happened in New York City after a ban on smoking in bars was introduced there. He maintained that the number of waitressing jobs in bars had decreased by 17% since the ban, and there was an 11% decrease in bar staff. Two thirds of all bars in the city said they had fewer customers after the ban was introduced.

‘At this stage we would like to thank all our staff and customers for their loyal and valued support throughout our campaign, and we look forward to a favourable outcome,’ he said.

‘After all, we are a democratic country. Common sense must prevail here. We do not undertake this course of action lightly, as we realise that this will have serious consequences for the civil liberties and rights of all citizens of the state,’ he said.