Publicans in Kerry will not enforce the smoking ban in the new year and will continue to allow smoking in designated sections on their premises, they decided at a meeting this week.
Mr John O'Sullivan, chairman of the Kerry Branch of the Vintners' Federation of Ireland, said the decision that the ban would not be enforced was unanimous at a meeting in Tralee.
The VFI has 380 members in Kerry, and more than 200 attended the meeting.
Mr O'Sullivan said the decision was "because of the total lack of consultation and communication from the Minister".
Vintners had been "dictated to," and this was despite a promise from Mr Martin to the VFI in October 2002 that he would not introduce the plans until he consulted vintners.
The Dutch government had shelved plans to bring in a smoking ban in pubs and restaurants to allow the hospitality industry to prove a total ban was not necessary.
Vintners in Ireland were currently testing a state-of-the-art ventilation system in a number of pubs, Mr O'Sullivan said.
Mr Martin and the Government had double standards and were "two-timing" when it came to cigarettes.
If the Minister was so concerned about smoking and was sincere about the issue, he should take cigarettes off the market altogether and stop making money from them, Mr O'Sullivan said.
Most publicans believed Mr Martin's plans were a political ploy to take attention away from the serious crisis in the health services, Mr O'Sullivan said.
Mr Martin was making publicans "wear the jackboots" whilst he as Minister would take the praise for the ban as a health measure, he said.
Most publicans had contingency plans involving practical compromises for the new year. In his own case, in the Munster Bar, Mr O'Sullivan was able to point to the hinges on a frame to allow a double door to be erected between the smoking area and the non-smoking area.
The publicans had decided to have no smoking within one metre of the counter and to have 50 per cent smoking, 50 per cent non-smoking.
Publicans in Kerry were still hoping for "a small bit of common sense" and for intervention from "higher echelons" to prevent the all-out ban, even at this late stage, he said.