Publicans in the capital who are worrying about how their clients will react to smoke-free zones should talk to Danny Byrne in Mullingar.
Danny, who runs a pub and restaurant in Pearse Street, has been operating such a system for some time in his pub without any problems from smoking or non-smoking customers.
This week he explained that he had noticed that the many American and Continental tourists who use his premises reacted badly to walking into a smoking zone.
"I noticed that people who had been using the restaurant and sitting in the designated non-smoking areas found difficulty when they came down to the pub after their meal, where people would normally be smoking," he said.
"I decided to designate an area at the front of the pub as a non-smoking area and it has gone down extremely well with the customers.
"I actually got in touch with the Eastern Health Board to ask them had they any signs or anything like that, but the board had not geared up for the non-smoking system at that stage."
Danny, who was a chain smoker for 35 years but is now "a reformed smoker", said he had been pleasantly surprised at the reaction of smokers who use his premises.
"I found that they respect the areas I have set aside and they do not object to being moved or it being pointed out to them that the area is a smokeless zone."
That, he said, had been the biggest surprise to him in the experiment, which will become a permanent feature of the bar and restaurant.
"Most restaurants have to reserve a section for non-smokers but even though many pubs serve food they do not adopt the same policy," he said.
"I think it is only a matter of time before no-smoking areas in pubs will become mandatory, so I have a head start over most publicans."
One Mullingar smoker found herself in front of the local district court recently and had to pay a total of £371 for discarding a cigarette on Church Avenue in the town.
A litter warden said he saw the defendant, who was on a smoking break from her place of work, throw a cigarette butt on the ground even though she was sitting close to a litter bin.
Judge John Neilan fined the woman £250 for the breach of the Litter Act and ordered that she pay £121 costs, according to the Westmeath Examiner.