Six months ago Dublin publican Ted O'Sullivan was arguing against the introduction of the workplace smoking ban. Now he is readily accepting it."It's not going to have a major effect one way or another," he says. "It's like clamping. We will get used to it after a while, and if you get caught, you won't do it again."
With just 19 days to go to the introduction of the ban, he is already preparing to erect special "no smoking" signs, and briefing staff on how to deal with non-compliant customers.
After a lengthy and vocal campaign of opposition to the Government's plans, it seems publicans are finally calling time on the row.
"The game is up," says O'Sullivan, who owns Maguire's pub and the neighbouring Georgian Hotel on Lower Baggot Street. "If you asked me six months ago I would have said 'I am going to lose business; this will be the straw to break the camel's back.' That was a gut reaction. I think if you had spent €4-€5 million on a suburban pub in a working class area you would be even more worried.
"I would have said 'give us three years first', and that no more than one-third of the bar should be smoking. I would have been strong enough on it.
"But as time has moved on I think we accept it, and there is not going to be any major trauma. Part of that is a feeling that the general public wants it now. There has been a change in public opinion.
"I think it's important for publicans to row in now and it will happen."
At his pub, preparations are under way to develop a court-yard at the back of the premises, with overhead heaters, to cater for smokers. Steel ash-trays are being mounted at railings outside both the pub and serviced offices next door, which are also owned by O'Sullivan. "The office workers stand on the steps and have a fag in the morning, and they'll continue to do the same. As for the bar, people will go out the back for their fag, and that's that."
The west Cork native - who is a non-smoker himself - is even seeing the positive side of the ban, arguing that it won't take four coats of white paint to clean up the ceiling anymore. The ban will also create a nicer environment for customers having lunch or snacks in the bar. In addition, "we might get more people coming in for a cup of coffee in the mornings where they would previously have gone to a coffee shop".
He notes the demand for non-smoking bedrooms has increased dramatically at the premises in recent years, and despite the dispensation for hotel rooms under the ban "we will probably go fully non-smoking at some stage. People don't want to be going into a smelly bedroom."
As for stopping staff from smoking on the premises, he says, "they are used to it already. Smoking in kitchens has not gone on in 20 years."
Under guidelines issued to publicans by the Office of Tobacco Control, staff are advised to follow a seven-step procedure for dealing with non-compliant customers. If such customers continue smoking after being advised not to, "you are entitled to refuse service and should immediately request that they leave the premises", the guidelines run.
Mr O'Sullivan says: "I think a lot of this will be self-policing. Other customers will surround the person smoking and tell him or her to put out the fag. That is what will happen down the country too. A new generation will come up who will embrace the ban if the culture is there."
Mr Michael O'Shea, chief executive of the Irish Heart Foundation (IHF), which was one of the principal health groups to campaign for the ban, also believes the prophets of doom in the licensed trade will be proved wrong. "In other places where the ban came in, there was a slight dip in business for a couple of months but then it picked up," he says.
The IHF is encouraging companies to use the opportunity of the ban to encourage workers to give up smoking. Up to 400,000 employees in 650 companies are participating in the group's health promotion programme, which covers stress management, nutritional advice, physical activity and smoking cessation.
For further information, contact the IHF on (01) 668 5001.
