The Minister for Health will sign regulations next week banning smoking in all workplaces, including pubs and restaurants, from January. This is despite fears of an escalating campaign by pub owners against the move.
Mr Martin last night refused to consider compromising on his proposals after robust meetings with publicans' representatives in Dublin.
The meetings, which had been due to take place next week, were brought forward by the Minister to end the uncertainty and get the regulations signed quickly.
Mr Martin briefed the Cabinet on the issue yesterday amid concern that the regulations should be signed next week to prevent the opposition to the ban from gaining momentum.
There are concerns in Government circles that publicans in other counties may follow those in Co Kerry who last week said they would not implement the ban.
Mr Martin said immediately after last night's meetings that the proposals the vintners had put forward "were not credible or realistic". He had asked them to consider the Government's proposal, which he again outlined to them in detail.
However, Mr Donall O'Keeffe, of the Licensed Vintners' Association (LVA), said Mr Martin was "a fundamentalist Minister" who was only giving "the illusion of consultation".
The issue of whether some psy-chiatric institutions or prisons should be exempt from the ban may be re-examined before the regulations come into force in January.
In further evidence of Government attempts to kill off the controversy, Minister of State Mr Frank Fahey yesterday issued a statement saying he supported Government policy, and would implement any ban decided by the Government.
There was speculation that Mr Fahey was put under pressure to make this statement following several days in which he could not be contacted to comment on reports that he opposed Government policy on the issue.
Mr Fahey's statement also drew attention, however, to a study of ventilation systems being carried out by the Health and Safety Authority.
He could not be contacted yesterday for clarification as to the relevance of this to the total ban on smoking planned.
The Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, is believed to have used last night's annual dinner with his Ministers of State to urge that the party present a united public face on the issue.
This follows reports that five Ministers of State support "compromise" on the planned ban.
Mr Martin was implicitly critical of Mr Fahey's lack of clarity on the issue earlier yesterday.
"Members of a parliamentary party, at a parliamentary party meeting, are entitled to their views," he said. "But Ministers in the context of their responsibilities and duties as Ministers have to fulfil those."
The publicans are understood to have pressed their economic arguments that the ban would cost jobs and business.
Mr O'Keeffe claimed Mr Martin was "now backing the LVA into a totally unpalatable and unnecessary position. The proposed ban, if introduced, will result in up to 8,000 redundancies."
Mr Martin disputed this. "I don't accept the doomsday job-loss predictions because it hasn't happened anywhere else where similar measures have been introduced."
Earlier Mr Martin briefed the Cabinet on recent meetings he has held with the Inspector of Mental Hospitals, the Psychiatric Nurses' Association and prison governors to discuss whether exemptions from the ban should be given to prisons or some psychiatric institutions. If there are to be any such exemptions they will only be given in later amendments to the regulations which Mr Martin is determined to sign next week.
At a press conference yesterday on a different issue, Mr Martin said he was "confident that this will be a very good step for Ireland and future generations of young people, who will look back and wonder what all the fuss was about".