Ireland stubs out

[mykfin]

Smoking in pubs in the Irish Republic was banned from midnight last night, but implementation is going to be hard to do, first reports are that people are ignoring the ban and puffing away. The Vitners Federation of Ireland reckon there could be many job losses and that the exchequer could be around £ 50 million light!

They say mainland UK will be next, nanny state or plain common sense?

[Babzzii]

As a smoker(please don't shout at me) I do think that for smoking to be
banned everywhere is wrong, there are places that we are not allowed to
light up and rightly so in some cases, there is nothing worse than when
eating out and people on the surrounding tables are puffing away !!

I do wonder how the will keep a check on who is allowing smoking and how
they will deal with them...it will be hard with some blantantly ignoring
the ban and also though I am not justifying smoking where will their
government top up the lost revenue which will be bound to occur !!

I can't see them bringing in that law over here as it will be so hard to police and fill the courts up even more(they complain about
that already)

Its not just the pubs that will suffer its the people who work for the
companies too as they could find themselves out of work and that itself
could be a drain on the government coffers !!

I would like to hear from a non smoker on how they think it could work !!

[kathyv]

This kind of a law has been in effect in Oregon for a long time now. As I don't smoke, it didn't really affect me, other than I could go to dinner and not be gassed out of the place! I have a friend who ran a restaurant and she was thrilled to have all smoking end in her establishment as she could go home after work and not have to fumigate her clothing and body! LOL She said she would just reek as there was a couple of men who came into her place daily and had coffee and cigaretts together, sometimes for hours. This not only made her smell, her car did, her house, everything she wore....

As someone who has been around smokers in America and Europe, and has lungs that get gummed up by the smoke, I have to say that the smoke smell in the UK is different than the smoke smell in the States. I don't know what it is, but there are things in American cigaretts that are worse than in European ones. I thought they were tolerable in the UK and Ireland. After dinner in a pub, I could smell the smoke on me and in my hair and clothing, but I didn't come away with that half gagging feeling I would have after dinner at the LT at home. I have been known to have Randy get our dinner to go because it was so bad at the local spot, one step in the door and I was ready for oxygen! Now, since smoking is banned there, I can stay and eat.

I do think there is prejudice against smokers. More so now because of the law. It has turned smoking into an almost illegal act, that's not really fair, no more than drinking coffee should be an illegal act.

There was a time, when I was a kid, that just about everybody's father smoked, mine included, and many moms did, too. These people are not criminals, now or then and I don't think it's fair to treat them so. I also don't really want them to be able to gas me and others out of public places, but shouldn't there be some establishments that ARE for them! Non-smokers could choose to go in or not. Right now, smokers have no choices.

[mykfin]

I myself enjoy a good cigar every now and then but wouldn`t dream of smoking it in a public place ie; bar, restaurant, etc. Ive nothing against smokers as long as they dont go blowing the stuff in my face, i have noticed in my local that there are fewer and fewer smokers around but i do agree with Kathyw that there should be more places for smokers to go.

ciao