Compliance with
smoking ban has reached 97pc
By Eilish
O'Regan Health Correspondent
Tuesday June 23 2009
A small number of
pubs, hotels, and taxis, flouted the smoking ban last year although overall
compliance is now at 97pc.
A total of 24
prosecutions were taken for breach of the smoking ban, 17 of which related to
pubs, with €2,000 the highest fine imposed.
The Office of
Tobacco Control (OTC), in its annual report, also said 23 cases were taken for
illegal sale of cigarettes to under 18-year-olds, in shops, pubs, and hotels,
with 19 convictions.
A shop in Co Mayo
got the stiffest fine for selling cigarettes to children. Costcutters
in Killala Rd, Ballina, Co Mayo, was fined €750.
From October,
breaches of the smoking legislation can lead to a pub, hotel, and shopkeeper,
being banned from selling cigarettes for up to three months.
OTC chief
executive Eamonn Rossi said: "Five years after
its introduction, we are delighted with how workplaces and the public continue
to support this public health measure."
He warned from
Wednesday of next week, July 1, new regulations will come into force which will
compel any premises selling cigarettes to keep them out of public view and to
remove any signage about cigarettes.
One in four people
here still smoke and the aim is to cut rates even further through the new
measures.
But the National
Federation of Retail Newsagents (NFRN) yesterday said it doubted the new
measures will reduce smoking rates. It wants stricter policing of tobacco
smuggling laws which cost retailers €453m in 2007 and a review of the impending
ban on point of sale advertising.
Martin Mulligan,
district president of the NFRN said that the black market sale of tobacco is
now officially one of the most profitable forms of organised
crime in
- Eilish O'Regan Health Correspondent