BY CIARAN WOODS

LOCAL UUP councillor and publican Derek Hussey has said he envisages "no problems" with the implementation of the ban on smoking in public places at the end of this month.

The owner of the Castle Inn in Castlederg, himself a smoker, accepts that the ban will have quite a dramatic impact on his customers.

But he insists that measures have been put in place to keep the levels of inconvenience they experience as low as possible.

He said, "Essentially, it all depends on the physical environment of the particular business what impact the ban is going to have. As regards to my own business, I am land-locked.

"I can certainly provide a smoking area adjacent to the lounge, but not to the front bar area.

"That simply means that anyone who needs to have a cigarette will have to leave the premises and go to the street to do so."

As a smoker, Derek himself will be affected by the ban, and although he says a private area is available for his own use, the councillor will be joining his patrons on the footpath where, as has been the case in the South, a large social element of a night out has moved to.

"There is a part of my business premises which I use as an extremely personal office, to which no-one else has access, and my understanding is that I am entitled to use that space.

"In saying that, chances are that I'm going to go out onto the street along with the rest of the guys, and have the craic.

I have heard tell that that's what happens in Donegal, where non-smokers realise that outside is where a bit of craic is, and actually join the smokers outside.

"But of course that's then their choice to be in that environment," he said.

Concerns have been raised by publicans across the North about policing and enforcement of the ban, with staff being put in the awkward position of having to ask patrons who light up indoors to leave the premises in order to smoke. Derek though does not see this particular problem arising on his own premises.

"Around 50 or 60% of my customers would be smokers, and their needs are not something that I'm going to ignore. At the same time, the majority of them are extremely responsible people, and will appreciate the position that I and my staff are in, with the need to enforce the smoking ban. I certainly don't envisage any incidents of people not listening to staff who instruct them to go outside in order to have a smoke," he said.

Although appreciating why the smoking ban is set to cause a rise in the number of people giving up smoking, Derek admits that he himself has no plans to stub out his habit.

"If you have less opportunities to smoke, then you're less likely to smoke, and therefore you're more likely to give it up to save the hassle. One might be persuaded to say 'perhaps I should consider a different way forward, in terms of smoking or not smoking,' but I for one have no plans to give up. When I have an opportunity to have a cigarette then I'll continue to do so," he concluded.