IRELAND: The Minister for Health, Mr Martin, said yesterday he was confident that publicans would uphold the smoking ban.
Mr Martin told reporters he had spoken to a number of vintners in recent months and they assured him they will abide by the new anti-smoking law.
"My view, having spoken to publicans, is that they will not deliberately oppose the law. Having talked to them I expect that they will uphold it.
"The law will be passed and the law will be enforced," he said.
Addressing delegates at the Promoting Heart Health event in Cork, he said cardiovascular disease is "a major health challenge facing not only the European Union but indeed the world.
"We know death rates from cardiovascular disease are declining but remain stubbornly and unacceptably high at around four out of every 10 deaths in the EU.
"We can predict that the combination of increasing life expectancy, healthier lifestyles, more effective treatments and the ageing profile of European populations will result in an increase in the already large number of people living with cardiovascular disease in the years to come."
Speaking afterwards, Mr Martin said this was a European-wide initiative.
He said: "The Norwegians are to bring in a similar ban on June 1st and there is legislation planned for Malta and Sweden."
The Minister dismissed the view that the Irish ban would be impossible to enforce in rural areas.
"They will just not keep going - three out of every four visitors to rural pubs are non-smokers."
He said people could smoke in open areas as long as 50 per cent of the space was free to the open air.
Mr Martin added that the most important group to target was young smokers.
"We need to target young people, so we will start a new ad campaign shortly and the recent Nico television ads will be followed by Nico mark two.
"I believe that the hard-hitting adverts have more of an impact, but shooting the Nico commercials will begin shortly.
"This is to target the vanity of smokers but there are statistics that say that fewer people are starting smoking," he said.
The impending Irish smoking ban had already caused large numbers of smokers to stop the habit.
Mr Martin said 17,000 people had contacted the quit line since news of the ban came to light. "There is strong anecdotal evidence from the office of tobacco control that regulations against smoking had a significant impact.
"These regulations include raising the price of cigarettes and the hard-hitting advertising has helped also," he said.
He predicted this would help reduce heart disease in Ireland.
Four out of every 10 deaths in the European Union are caused by cardiovascular disease and many could be prevented.
The Minister said his Department would begin shortly to deal with the growing problem of obesity.
"I think that obesity will be a more difficult challenge than smoking because it is spread so widely," he said.