Posted on 10/04/2003 4:06:22 AM PDT by tdadams
DUBLIN, Ireland - Rebellious pub owners and the health minister clashed Friday over the government's determination to introduce a smoking ban in workplaces across Ireland. Health Minister Micheal Martin has ordered that all workplaces must become smoke-free after Jan. 1 — a ban similar to one enacted in New York City.
John O'Sullivan, chairman of an association that represents the 380 pub owners in County Kerry, said more than 200 who attended an industry gathering had voted to ignore Martin's instructions and to create special areas for smokers in their pubs.
Industry officials predicted more regional revolts — making the proposed ban unenforceable — unless he backed down.
But Martin said he wasn't willing to compromise on the issue of making bar workers inhale customers' cigarette smoke. He said pubs could face fines of up to $2,100 if they let people light up inside their establishments.
Martin said research had proven that second-hand smoke was "a killer, and we've got to act to protect people. The law will be applied to all establishments and that's the bottom line."
O'Sullivan, who owns the Munster Bar in Tralee, said he planned to erect double doors and designate half of the pub for smokers, who he said represented about half of his customers. Like other Kerry publicans, he planned to ask patrons not to smoke within three feet of the bar to safeguard workers' lungs — a measure dismissed by Martin as hopelessly inadequate.
But O'Sullivan said he wasn't worried about Martin's threats. He'd rather be fined, he said, than lose an estimated 30 percent of his business.
"In this country, we've had 800 years of oppression from a foreign power. Perhaps we might be rebellious by nature," O'Sullivan said. "We don't expect Micheal Martin to bend just yet. But bend he will once he feels the tide of public opinion."
A County Kerry lawmaker, Jackie Healy-Rae, said he backed the rebellion and didn't think he could get his customers to stop smoking even if he wanted to.
"No matter what Micheal Martin says, he can't compel me to do something that I'm not able to do," said Healy-Rae, who also owns a pub.
The Vintners Federation of Ireland, which represents 6,500 pub owners nationwide, published results Friday from a controversial survey of bar staff which it claimed shows overwhelming support for a compromise plan on smoking.
The survey by the Dublin-based polling firm Lansdowne Market Research, found that more than 70 percent of bar employees support their bosses' preference for retaining areas specifically for smokers and installing better ventilation systems. The telephone poll, involving 350 workers at pubs in seven counties questioned from Sept. 18-20, didn't specify its margin of error.
Mandate, the union that represents bar workers, called the survey an act of intimidation, and he urged Martin to protect workers' health.
"What employee would feel comfortable answering this questionnaire with his employer looking over his shoulder?" said Mandate spokesman John Douglas. "We appeal to Minister Martin to pursue any publican who refuses to ban smoking to the full rigor of the law."
But the Vintners Federation chairman, Tadg O'Sullivan, predicted that publicans in Cork, Limerick, Galway and other western Irish towns would be likely to join the Kerry uprising.
"We must have compromise, otherwise we will really have serious difficulties across the country," he said.
Like the country as a whole, the governing Fianna Fail party is divided over Martin's plan. More than a quarter of party lawmakers, including a Cabinet minister and two junior ministers, say they oppose it.
Some Dublin pubs have already begun to accommodate the law and smokers alike — by installing wall-mounted ashtrays outside their premises and creating outdoor dining and drinking areas heated by gas radiators.
I'm going to be very interested to see how this little tug of war turns out, but I doubt the government will find much voluntary compliance.
Well, as they say, follow the money.
Number one - Leftist trial lawyers and leftist foundations have made a killing extorting money from tobacco companies. They know this will help fund the expansion of leftist policies for years, if not decades, to come.
Number two - the left hates capitalism and free enterprise. Look at how much damage the anti-smoking laws and regulations are doing to businesses. It's brilliant.
It is just another leftist Trojan Horse. Once they have firmly established the concept that the state has a right to dictate personal behavior, that there are no cizitens but only subjects of the state, then they will move on to more draconian restrictions.
It goes to show you how rapidly our traditions of freedom are deteriorating: 10 years ago you could never enforce a smoking ban in NYC. The Mayor would not even try it and the public would just ignore it. It is still amazing as there was no vote or even a discussion of this before the election.
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