Shaun sees there's no smoke without ire
Tuesday July 05 2005
But in a reminder of the difficulties associated with the ban, a Dublin pub which has temporarily closed its smoking area ended up being chosen as the venue for a photo call. However, Mr Woodward and Social Affairs Minister Seamus Brennan seemed happy enough as they sipped pints of Guinness in Doheny and Nesbitts.
The Baggot Street pub - a popular watering hole for politicians, journalists and civil servants - closed its smoking area last year after it emerged that it could have been in breach of the ban.
Plans for a partial ban in Northern Ireland were announced last week, and Mr Woodward is currently deciding whether to introduce a ban in all public enclosed spaces.
"The decision the Government made here was, frankly, pioneering. New York and Dublin led the way. The rest of us are following," said Mr Woodward, who gave up smoking four months ago.
"What you see here is that the Irish are pioneers and are the most intelligent people around.
"They have led the way on making your life healthier. They have actually led the way on the fact that you don't have to force people to passive smoke."
In a rare show of unity, the North's main political parties are in agreement on bringing a smoking ban into force.
But any such move is likely to be opposed by the North's publicans, who claim that the ban has had a very negative effect on their southern counterparts.
Nicola Carruthers, chief executive of the North's Federation of Retail Licensed Trade, yesterday said she hoped Mr Woodward would go a bit further than Dublin on his fact-finding mission, as Northern publicans understood from their southern counterparts that many pubs in rural areas had been hard hit by the ban and thousands of jobs had been lost in the hospitality industry.
- Ben Quinn
