Northern Ireland pubs have no time to prepare for smoking ban

24 April 2007 by
Northern Ireland pubs have no time to prepare for smoking ban

Some pubs in Northern Ireland will be forced to wait for up two years to prepare their premises for the smoking ban, even though it comes into effect on 30 April, industry leaders have warned.

The province will next week become the third UK region to introduce a ban on smoking in public places, following in the footsteps of Wales (2 April) and Scotland (26 March). The Republic of Ireland brought in a ban in 2004.

Nicola Carruthers, chief executive of the Federation of the Retail Licensed Trade, said that, while it was expected that Northern Ireland would have a smooth transition, the way the legislation had been laid out was "absolutely woeful".

"On 9 March the final legislation came through and, with the ban implemented on 30 April, there is not enough time to work through Northern Ireland's administrative departments]," she said.

"It could take 12-18 months to get planning permission through, and then you have the construction. Outdoor smoking sites could be two years away for some licensees. An awful lot of people are trying to get an area without planning permission," Carruthers added.

Read more on the smoking ban >>

Northern Ireland tourism brings in £1m a day >>

Northern Ireland smoking ban to begin 30 April 2007 >>

Northern Ireland to ban high fat snacks from schools >>

By Christopher Walton

E-mail your comments to Christopher Walton here.

[The Caterer Blog](http://www.caterersearch.com/blogs/catering-news-blog/) Catch up with more news and gossip on the Caterer Blog here
[Newswire For the latest hospitality news, sign up for our e-mail news alerts.
The Caterer Breakfast Briefing Email

Start the working day with The Caterer’s free breakfast briefing email

Sign Up and manage your preferences below

Check mark icon
Thank you

You have successfully signed up for the Caterer Breakfast Briefing Email and will hear from us soon!

Jacobs Media is honoured to be the recipient of the 2020 Queen's Award for Enterprise.

The highest official awards for UK businesses since being established by royal warrant in 1965. Read more.

close

Ad Blocker detected

We have noticed you are using an adblocker and – although we support freedom of choice – we would like to ask you to enable ads on our site. They are an important revenue source which supports free access of our website's content, especially during the COVID-19 crisis.

trade tracker pixel tracking