Smokers should be allowed to light up in designated sections of pubs and restaurants, former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani has said.

Mr Giuliani, speaking during a visit to the Irish Republic, said ministers should give people the right to choose, rather than enforcing outright bans on smoking in workplaces. He said he believed a compromise situation would create the right balance for both smokers and non-smokers. "I think governments should provide the ability for people who want to make a choice to make that choice. "Therefore some people want the choice of being able to dine in a smoke-free environment, they should be entitled to that. "And some people want to make the choice of being able to have a cigar or a pipe or a cigarette after dinner, and they should be provided with an opportunity to do that. "I think that is the best balance that works out." His comments came after Irish health minister Micheal Martin visited bars and restaurants in New York to see how the ban on smoking in workplaces was being implemented. In just four months a similar ban will be enforced in the Irish Republic. Mr Giuliani - who is due to speak at a conference in Cork on Friday - told Irish radio that he favoured a more lenient law, such as the one imposed in New York in 1994. This prohibited smoking in areas where people were eating but allowed it in certain closed off areas. "It limited pretty dramatically the places you could smoke but it left open some places where people who enjoy smoking would be allowed to do it," he added.

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