New figures released by the Drinks Industry Group of Ireland show that 7,000 jobs were lost in the pub trade in 2010 alone.
“It is ironic to think that a smoking ban ostensibly introduced to protect the health of bar staff should be contributing to their loss of employment,” said John Mallon of the smokers' group Forest Eireann.
PS. Did we really say "Government must intervene". Er, yes, but only in the sense that the Government should not have intervened in the first place. In this instance 'intervention' means relaxing the regulations ...