Posted: March 30 2007

The Office of Tobacco Control has released its latest annual report which reveals that one-in-seven pubs that have been inspected by health officials last year, were in breach of the smoking ban.

The report shows that only 86% of licensed premises were compliant with the smoke-free laws.

Approximately 8,500 inspections were carried out during 2006 and of those, 1,217 were found to be in breach of the Public Health (Tobacco) Acts.

Pubs also accounted for 31 of 35 criminal prosecutions brought by the OTC against the owners of business premises in 2006.

A total of 34 cases were successfully prosecuted, resulting in 37 convictions. Four other offenders were given the Probation Act.

That being said, overall the level of compliance with the smoking ban remains relatively high with only 5% of all premises found to be in breach of the legislation.

OTC chief executive Éamonn Rossi, said that overall he was pleased with the general compliance level and said that many of the breaches of the smoking ban relating to pubs were “relatively minor”.  He thought that the potential fines of up to €3,000 was a good deterrent and that health officials try to resolve the issue without resorting to criminal prosecutions.