Alcohol-free hotel bar owner seeks to reverse smoking ban

THE WOMAN with Ireland's first alcohol-free hotel bar has launched a campaign to reverse the smoking ban in pubs.

Ann Sweeney said the first mission for her one-person New Ireland party is to seek to have luxury smoking rooms attached to pubs.

Ms Sweeney has issued a rallying call to smokers throughout Ireland to get in touch with her at her Carraig Rua hotel in Dunfanaghy, Co Donegal. She plans weekly meetings of supporters and aims to take the issue as far as the European Court if necessary.

She is encouraged by a recent judgment in Germany that partially overturned bans on smoking in bars.

Ms Sweeney reckons that the Irish law that says smoking can only take place in shelters with two sides open to the elements is unconstitutional. She said: "The Irish public thought it was great to get smoking out of pubs and I agree 100 per cent. But I find the Government's double standards fascinating. If it insists on raising revenue with heavy taxes on tobacco products, then there is an obligation that smokers be treated the same as drinkers and proper facilities should be put in place for them."

She said they were entitled to have their own enclosed smoking area, with big crushed velvet couch and leather armchair. She said: "They should not be exposed to the Atlantic gales, which is what happens in Donegal . . . Why can't we have an extractor system in a very comfortable smoking room that would do the same job?"

Ms Sweeney, who also owns a licensed pub, said pub trade in rural Ireland has fallen by two-thirds since the smoking ban.

She formed her New Ireland party after gardaí seized all alcoholic drink in her hotel and pub because of a licence dispute. The drink was returned on a court order and the pub resumed business, but she accepts her hotel must remain alcohol-free until a complication over its drinks licence is resolved.

This article appears in the print edition of the Irish Times