The Government's senior medical adviser has ruled out any prospect of compromise with publicans, hoteliers and others opposed to the total ban on workplace smoking due to come into force on New Year's Day.
In an unusual public intervention, the chief medical officer of the Department of Health and Children, Mr Jim Kiely, declared: "What compromise can there be in this area of public health?
"The Minister cannot compromise on the health and safety of workers in the hospitality industry, or discriminate in favour of workers in other sectors. Cigarette smoke circulates freely and is hazardous to smoker and non-smoker."
The chief medical officer's tough line came just hours after the Vintners' Federation of Ireland called for talks with the Minister for Health, Mr Martin, and "a truthful exchange of information" and the commissioning of independent research.
The Minister, who is on annual leave, has rejected calls for changes already made by the Irish Hospitality Industry Alliance, which represents an unknown number of hotels, pubs and restaurants.
"The recommendation made to the Minister is that exposure to the hazards of tobacco smoke can best be controlled by banning smoking in places of work," Dr Kiely said in a statement last evening.
He went on: "The prohibition on smoking in the workplace is a proportionate and balanced measure to deal with the substantial risks that arise from environmental tobacco smoke."
Rejecting the IHIA's warnings that trade will fall off, Dr Kiely said revenue taken by Californian restaurants and bars has risen by 44 per cent to $36.8 billion, though smoking there was banned in 1995 and 1998, respectively.
"There are no grounds for the recent conjecture that there will be any negative economic impact to this ban. Such speculation is not supported by any evidence," he declared.
Furthermore, he said: "This is a health issue and the licensed trade should be considering the 70 per cent of customers that do not smoke that may be attracted into their premises, due to the smoke-free premises." The majority of people in the Republic do not smoke. "Most smokers regret starting and want to quit," he said.
In a letter sent yesterday to Mr Martin, the chief executive of the Vintners' Federation of Ireland, Mr Tadg O'Sullivan, said Mr Martin had repeatedly claimed that his advisers had unequivocally advised him to curb smoking.
Instead, Mr O'Sullivan said, the Department of Health-appointed experts' group had made it clear that extra research is required to assess workplace tobacco exposure levels, especially on high-risk groups such as pregnant workers and bar workers.
"You continually state that you are implementing this ban based on expert advice. Clearly the expert advice did not recommend such a ban," Mr O'Sullivan wrote.
The vintners' leader claimed that Health and Safety Authority officials had repeatedly made "blatantly false statements" at public consultation meetings organised by the experts' group.
"We have been convinced for a long time that you have been misled, that evidence fed to you has been cherry-picked, and that scientific information has been manipulated in support of those who would wish to have a ban imposed," he said.
Publicans, he said, now face jail for allowing smoking, while two men were fined just €100 for a pub brawl in Cork which looked like "world war three".
"We accept that smoking is unhealthy. We support a campaign to encourage people to quit. We cannot support scientific betrayal and false information in pursuit of that goal," Mr O'Sullivan said.
