Regulations banning smoking from January 26th in all workplaces, including pubs and restaurants, were published yesterday by the Minister for Health, Mr Martin.
They stipulate that smoking will be prohibited in all enclosed places of work other than a private dwelling.
This will mean a ban on smoking in a wide variety of places, including taxis, trains, aircraft, schools and colleges, concert halls, State buildings and health premises.
Furthermore, the regulations will apply to prisons and psychiatric institutions, but the manner in which they will be implemented in these sectors is to be the subject of detailed discussions. This could ultimately see these sectors exempted from the regulations and if so, amending legislation will have to be published later.
A statement issued by the Department of Health said: "Given the unique circumstances pertaining to prisons and places of detention, consultation is ongoing between the relevant agencies with a view to devising a separate measure to reflect these circumstances".
Shrugging off threats of legal action against the new legislation from the powerful vintners' lobby, Mr Martin said the primary purpose of the new regulations was to allow people to work and socialise in clean, healthy, smoke-free environments. "No one can be in any doubt that exposure to and inhalation of environmental tobacco smoke is a cause of cancer, heart disease and respiratory disease," he said.
He appealed to vintners to take a step back and reflect on what was happening and work towards implementing this "important public-health measure".
"Why would you take legal action against a measure designed to protect and improve public health?" he asked.
He went on to warn publicans they could leave themselves open to legal action from employees if they did not implement the ban.
In relation to whether or not plumbers and others working in a private dwelling would be banned from smoking, Mr Martin said: "People will have to make practical arrangements on the ground in terms of not smoking when they are in a working environment. I don't actually see great difficulty in that."
Asked if a taxi-driver could smoke if there were no passengers in his vehicle, he said: "The nitty-gritty questions will be issues that will fall to the National Implementation Committee to resolve with the various sectors."
A National Implementation Committee has been established to assist with implementation of the regulations. The committee, which includes representatives of the Office of Tobacco Control, the Health and Safety Authority, environmental health officers, health board representatives and the Department of Health, will publish guidelines on implementation next month.
The Tobacco Smoking (Prohibition) Regulations 2003 were published under section 47 of the Public Health (Tobacco) Act 2002. A person who breaches the regulations will be liable on summary conviction to a fine of up to €1,900, or to imprisonment for up to 3 months or both.
Following publication of the regulations, it emerged they had been signed into law last Thursday, October 16th, by Mr Martin but were not published until yesterday after they were laid before the Houses of the Oireachtas.