A Limerick publican has warned that he will have to close his 200-year-old pub if the planned smoking ban goes ahead.
Mr Glenn McGloughlin placed a full-page advertisement in a local newspaper warning locals that he would have to close the White House pub, at the corner of O'Connell Street and Glentworth Street, due to a loss in trade.
"It's something I am deadly serious about," Mr McGloughlin said. "We are going through a bit of a rough patch at the moment, everyone seems to be in the same boat. I can't take any further reductions."
The pub owner has added his voice to the clamour of opposition from hoteliers, guest house owners and publicans against the Minister for Health's planned ban, due to come into effect on New Year's Day 2004.
The Irish Hospitality Alliance, which claims to represent more than 15,000 businesses, said there was confusion over whether the ban would also apply to beer gardens, terraces outside pubs and cafés, and cattle marts. Alliance spokesman Mr Finbar Murphy said plans for a ban on enclosed workplaces could apply to these areas if they were only partly exposed to the air.
A spokesman for the Minister said the ban would apply to enclosed workplaces and that regulations to be published in the coming months would clear up any confusion. Mr Martin is expected to go to Cabinet to discuss the proposed wording of the proposed ban. It will not require new legislation as it can be enforced by regulation under the Public Health (Tobacco) Act.
Mr McGloughlin said he was angry that he had not been given the choice of opening separate smoking and non-smoking sections of the pub.
"We don't have a problem with smoking in that the place is very well ventilated. There is a state- of-the-art ventilation system in there. What is wrong with having a smoking room within the premises?" he told RTÉ radio yesterday.
Nearly 90 per cent of his customers smoked and that business was down by 8 to 10 per cent over the last six months. The economic blow of an all-out smoking ban would cripple the business, he said.
The alliance claims that based on New York's experience with a similar ban, trade in pubs will drop by up to 30 per cent and lead to up to 65,000 job losses. This is disputed by trade unions representing bar workers who claim the number of people employed in New York's hospitality industry has increased by 1,500 since the ban was introduced.
