NI licensees join forces to push Charter compliance
Northern Irish licensees have formed a taskforce to look at ways of pushing forward Smoking Charter compliance in the province.
The Federation of the Retail Licensed Trade (FRLT), representing Northern Ireland's pubs and bars, believes far more pubs need no smoking areas and proper ventilation if the trade is to avoid legislation.
The chief executive of the FRLT, Nicola Jamison, commented: "Sign-up to the Charter has been good so far, but too many pubs have simply put up 'Smoking Allowed Throughout' signs.
"That's clearly not going to be good enough and we need to move quickly."
The group was formed after a smoking summit meeting organised by the FRLT.
Local licensees shared their views with Charter Group chairman Nick Bish, AIR campaign spokesman Oliver Griffiths and Tadg O'Sullivan, chief executive of the Irish Republic's trade body, the Vintners' Federation of Ireland.
With the vast majority of Northern Irish pubs run by independents, Ms Jamison added: "A big issue is going to be persuading owner/operators of the business case for investing in compliance."
Ms Jamison warned that if the Northern Ireland Assembly is re-established, a health minister with an anti-smoking agenda would be in a very strong position to quickly push through smoking controls similar to the planned ban in the Republic.
South of the border, however, there may be some problems with policing the new smoking ban.
The Republic's government has admitted that Ireland does not have enough environmental health officers (EHOs) to ensure that the planned ban is enforced.
The trade union that represents EHOs said that the 40 officers currently assigned to controlling smoking would be "totally inadequate" to police the planned ban in all Irish workplaces, including pubs and bars.
With the launch of the ban already put back from January until at least April, Irish health minister Micheál Martin also faces legal delays.
The Irish Hospitality Association, which includes publicans, restaurateurs and hoteliers as members, is planning to mount a legal challenge to the regulations as soon as the government publishes the implementation guidelines.
Related articles:
Northern Ireland pubs must act now on Smoking Charter (27 January 2004)
