A DECADE ago the wails of vintners rent the air at the prospect of paying customers leaving the smokey fug of pubs to indulge a habit that went hand-in-glove with sinking a few pints of the plain stuff.

Amid dire predictions that the workplace smoking ban would decimate their livelihoods, publicans suddenly developed a caring side, concerned, as they were, for the health of entire families. After all, outlawing cigarettes in the bar room would force smokers to light up at home, exposing the children of the nation to inordinate levels of second-hand smoke.

Not only that, but the ban was so unworkable in the Irish climate that, according to then president of the Vintners Federation of Ireland, Joe Browne, it would only be an option “when we start growing bananas and oranges here”.

Thankfully, for everyone, the ban was pushed through despite our ongoing inability to produce certain kinds of fruit. And believe it or not, vintners now figure strongly among the more avid supporters of the ban.

Clare man Paul Montgomery, proprietor of a number of Cork City drinking spots, says publicans were jittery initially about the ban, but most have by now come around. “There’s no doubt about it, when the ban first came in, it caused angst in the trade,” he says. “But the reality was, we had to adapt. And what I find now is that our smoking areas are a key part of the trade.”

Mr Montgomery, owner of The Oliver Plunkett on the street that gave it its name, as well as Reardans Bar on Washington St, incorporating nightclub Havana Browns, has invested heavily in ensuring smoking customers are catered for. The Oliver Plunkett already houses an impressive upstairs smoking space and Mr Montgomery says he’ll be investing a further €400,000 to €500,000 in developing a whiskey bar and smoking room. He also has plenty of sheltered tables on the pavement outside, replete with outdoor heating. Havana Browns has a “Secret Garden” for smokers. Reardans has its own smoking space.

They put a lot of effort into complying with the regulations he says and are regularly visited by environmental health officers. “We have to meet the standards, so it’s either 100% of the roof open or 50% of the wall space,” he says.

Benny McCabe, owner of seven, quality, heritage pubs in Cork City, including The Bodega, Sin é, and Crane Lane, is grateful for the smoking ban. Now in the business 23 years, he says he would have “gotten out of the pub trade altogether” if it hadn’t been brought in. “I can’t stand smokey atmospheres,” he says.

He nonetheless invested heavily to create pleasant smoking areas for his customers, although he believes the habit is on the wane. “I genuinely feel there is a swing back to the inside of the pub. I think the novelty of the smoking area is wearing off, but at the same time, both sides of the smoking divide have to be catered for,” he says.

Mr McCabe believes the ban was the catalyst for the ruination of pubs in rural Ireland. “It made old men lonelier than ever — they’re not going to come in from their homes to stand outside the door of a pub. And by ravaging rural bars, it, by extension, ruined the social fabric of life in rural Ireland.”

But surely the price of drink and the demise of rural transport schemes also played a part? “Yes, but the rot started with the smoking ban.” He says the Government will ultimately end up grant-aiding rural pubs to keep them open for the tourist season.

Of course the other side of the argument is that he spent half his live clearing up cigarette butts prior to the ban. “I’d be rushing around trying to empty ashtrays while pints I’d poured were settling and I don’t miss that at all. Or the smell off my clothes,” he says.

Con Dennehy, proprietor of Dennehy’s Pub on the Coal Quay in Cork City, and spokesperson for the Vintners Federation, says publicans are well used to the ban and have accepted the law. His premises is too small for a smoking area, so customers go outside. His main issue is what he feels is inconsistent application of the law in relation to whether smoking areas meet the regulations: “You can have an environmental health officer [EHO] who will say everything is OK and then you could get a different chap who disagrees. There seems to be no consistency in application of the regulations between different EHOs.”

None of the three publicans are smokers themselves. Mr Dennehy grew up in the family pub and was constantly exposed to passive smoke.

“We didn’t even have a fan to extract it. My mother died aged 98 a couple of years ago, and she had no respiratory problems. I can honestly say it didn’t do me any harm.”

At the end of the day all three agree the smoking ban is no longer an issue for them. “We fought tooth and nail against it,” Mr Dennehy says, “because we felt it would ruin our business.

But in retrospect, maybe the vintners should have handled it differently. Maybe we should have said: ‘To hell with it, it’s coming in’ and sent out the message that the ban would make pubs a better place.”

Bans linked to child health benefits

Public smoking bans have been linked with a rapid decline in the number of babies born before term and the number of child hospital visits for asthma, according to research published in The Lancet.

An analysis of 11 studies in North America and Europe, involving more than 2.5 million births and nearly 250,000 asthma exacerbations, showed a 10% reduction in both pre- term births and hospital attendance for asthma within a year of smoke- free laws coming into effect.

The research also found a 5% decline in children being born very small for gestational age, after the introduction of smoke-free laws.

Dr Jasper Been from Maastricht University Medical Centre in the Netherlands said the study provides “clear evidence” that smoking bans have considerable public health benefits for perinatal and child health.

Dr Been said it also provided strong support for WHO recommendations to create smoke-free public environments on a national level.

Study co-author, Professor Aziz Sheikh of Brigham and Women’s Hospital, USA, and the University of Edinburgh, Britain, said in light of the findings, the many countries yet to enforce smoke-free legislation should “reconsider their positions”.

The study involved both published and unpublished studies over 38 years (1975–2013) reporting on the impact of public smoking restrictions on the health of children up to 12.

Since the workplace smoking ban was introduced in Ireland in March 2004, smoking prevalence rates have dropped from almost 29% to 21.5% at the end of last year, according to health service figures.

However separate data from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development last November showed Ireland had a prevalence rate of 29%, well above the OECD average.