Just to voice an opinion here.
I am not a smoker, although i used to be & turned my back on the habbit never to go back. However, although I can see the advantages of banning smoking, There is, as with every argument, 2 sides.

Non smokers have the right to enjoy a drink, without enduring smoke around them, BUT Surely the smokers have the right to enjoy their evening as well. What Fianna Fail (Party in Gov for anyone that dont know)have done is taken all rights away from smokers, and placed them in the hands of non smokers. I think it's a disgrace that the government steamrolled this in, when in a democracy, something like this should have been put to a vote, or at least Non smoking & Smoking areas in pubs so both sides could be happy. In my opinion the gov are telling people exactly what they can and cant do, surely this is veering towards a dictatorship, more so than democracy.
Either way it doesn't affect me as a non smoker, but my heart goes out to those who do, and have now to put up with being punished while trying to enjoy a night out.

If all else fails, light up, get arrested and get put in the big house. You can smoke in Garda Barraks, and prisons!! (lateral thinking!!)

I bid you all adieu