Ireland’s pioneering Smoking ban has won widespread support despite fears it would put pubs out of business, antismoking group ASH said on Tuesday.

The ban on smoking in pubs, restaurants and workplaces, introduced exactly one year ago, was expected to meet widespread resistance in a country where the pub culture of a drink and a smoke were considered part of its lifeblood.

Instead, the sight of smokers huddled outside pub doors is now as familiar as a pint of Guinness.

“The general support for this health initiative is extremely high and has increased further since its introduction, even among smokers - and exceeds all expectations,” said ASH, noting the new law had 97-percent support in pubs and restaurants.

Professor Luke Clancy, chairman of ASH’s Irish branch, said the ban could become the “health initiative of the century.”

The group estimates that tobacco kills six times as many people in Ireland as road accidents, work accidents, drugs, murder, suicide and AIDS combined. Dealing with smoking-related illnesses is a massive drain on health resources.

“As expected, the scaremongering predictions, such as the projected loss of 60,000 jobs, have not materialized. Neither have vast numbers of public houses closed - in fact the selling price of these establishments continues to increase,” Clancy said.

COSTS DRIVE DRINKERS HOME

Similar laws had been introduced before in cities and states like New York and California, but Ireland was the first country to introduce a nationwide ban. A number of other countries, including Malta, Norway and Italy, have since followed suit.

But not everyone in Ireland has welcomed the ban.

Some pub owners and alcohol and tobacco firms blame it for a drop in sales - bar revenues fell 6.3 percent in the first nine months of 2004. Cigarette sales dropped about 18 percent last year compared to a 10-percent fall in 2003.

Locals say the decline of the Irish pub has more to do with high prices and lifestyle changes than the smoking ban.

Alcoholic drinks cost more in Ireland than in any other EU country - some 82 percent above the eurozone average - according to figures from the EU statistics agency Eurostat last year.

“One year on, there’s no doubt that sales have been hit by the ban, but prices are the bigger issue,” said Bettina MacCarvill, associate director of market research group Millward Brown IMS.

“Many people are opting to spend more on their leisure time at home or in the homes of friends and family, rather than pricey nights out in bars and restaurants,” she added.

But for those smokers who still venture out for a taste of Ireland’s famed “craic” (fun), the ban can have some benefits.

Micheal Martin, the health minister who introduced the ban, said last year the law had spurred a new form of dating - with smokers striking up conversations outside bars and clubs.