The scenes in Paceville were as desolate as could be, with less patrons around, and people turning up but then changing their minds and leaving.

There were also some incidents when the bartenders told people they could not smoke, “some either swore at the government, others went directly political while others still defied the law, creating embarrassment and worse,” as GRTU’s Philip Fenech put it.

There was also one amusing incident when a group of Irish tourists went to a bar at Qawra and were told about the smoking ban. “You’re joking,” they replied, “we came to Malta to get around our ban.” They then walked out in a rage.

All leisure outlets contacted reported a drop in income: some of as much as 60 per cent while others less. The drop in income was less marked in restaurants but here the danger is of substantial job losses in the coming weeks. Some restaurant owners have given themselves to the end of the month to see if the drop continues. If that is sustained, redundancies will become the order of the day.

The ban has also brought about a seismic shift in the way people enjoy their leisure time. It has disrupted the previous well-accepted pattern in bars, for now there is a continuous stream of people going outside to smoke. Thus, people drink less, consume less food at the bar, and DJs and musicians have less custom. Also, people smoking outside tend to smoke faster, thus inhaling more in their eagerness to go in and rejoin the conversation.

People have also shifted to private parties which have sprouted all over the place as the only way to beat the ban.

Mr Fenech said that the anger of bartenders is directed at one specific person, Dr Mario Spiteri from the Health Promotion Unit. His work against smoking is commendable, Mr Fenech said, but he is invited to go anywhere in the leisure industry or in Paceville and see for himself that the effects GRTU had warned about have now come all true.

Some of Dr Spiteri’s comments now rankle more than ever in bartenders’ minds.

Dr Spiteri, Mr Fenech explained, said that the big outlets have made the changes required. This is not true, as the regulations are written in such convoluted language that even the owners of the larger outlets cannot understand them.

Nor is it true that the small outlet owners have put up a canopy in front of their shop.

As to the argument that the smoking ban was brought to cinemas and there was no impact, that was a wrong argument to bring up, as people go to bars and coffee shops far more often than they go to watch a film. And while they watch the film at the cinema, they speak and chat in bars.

Dr Spiteri had also claimed that any low turnout for bars by the smokers would be compensated by the non-smokers all coming out. Given that 90,000 smoke in Malta, roughly one-third of the population except the under-aged and the elderly. But there has been absolutely no evidence that the non-smokers have now started to go out.

“We tell our members to remove ashtrays from their outlet and to put up the GRTU stickers outside,” Mr Fenech said. “Then it is up to the client to self-regulate. God forbid that this decision leads to ruin or to companies going bankrupt. Even before, the situation was not rosy at all for many owners.

“GRTU cooperated and did, and still does, its best to curb smoking. But we wanted things to be brought in a more gradual manner and to be based on voluntary choice. We wanted to create competition between smoking and non-smoking venues and then let the market decide until the other European countries came aboard so that we would not get this negative image among potential tourists.”

Mr Fenech’s parting shot was quite telling: In all the issue, we had only two meetings with health minister Louis Deguara and the two meetings were only held after we had to intervene with Prime Minister Gonzi.”