Confusion reigns over how publicans can stop customers from smoking, writes Carl O'Brien.
Marc Kelleher laughs in disbelief as he talks of how the smoking ban will be implemented once it becomes law next year.
On a busy night there are 1,500 customers and around 50 staff in his pub, the Bishopstown Bar, a large premises on the outskirts of Cork City.
And when one adds the new obligation of ensuring there is a smoke-free atmosphere, it just doesn't compute, he says. "I can't see how it will work," says Mr Kelleher, one of the founding members of the Irish Hospitality Industry Alliance (IHIA), a single-issue lobby group formed to oppose the ban.
"How do you police it in areas like toilets, for example? They'll just become de-facto smoking areas. We'll have bicycle-shed syndrome, and smokers will just stamp on the evidence if a staff member comes along. So what's the solution? Putting cameras in the toilets?" he asks, arching his eyebrows theatrically.
Whatever about the doubt over details, the Minister for Health, Mr Martin, has made it clear that the smoking ban in the workplace will come into force early next year.
The Minister says workers in the hospitality industry are at particular risk of developing cancer, heart disease and respiratory problems because of their exposure to environmental tobacco smoke.
In setting out his rationale for the blanket ban on smoking in the workplace, Mr Martin insisted there could be "no compromise on health." However, what was once a blanket ban has been beset by controversy and confusion, giving it the texture of a malleable work in progress, responsive to political pressure and subject to frequent clarifications.
In his fierce determination to stand his ground, the Minister has been forced into an embarrassing retreat over issues such as exemptions, the date of introduction and the enforcement of the ban.
At last count there were more than 15 exemptions, including hotel bedrooms, nursing homes, prisons and psychiatric hospitals.
The date for the implementation of the ban - originally New Year's Day 2004 - is still not known and has been delayed on several occasions.
Now that the blanket has been partially lifted, publicans hope they can raise it even further by maintaining pressure for a compromise, taking legal action against the measures and, in some cases, refusing to enforce the ban itself.
At a heated meeting of more than 1,000 members of the Licensed Vintners' Association (LVA) in Portlaoise last October, the fighting rhetoric echoed around the smoke-filled convention centre.
"My address at the moment is Galway," Mr Ronan Lawless, a VFI member, told the meeting. "But it might be Mountjoy soon, because I haven't a bull's notion of putting this through," he said to roars of approval.
The consequences for customers or staff who do not comply with the ban are serious: a fine of up to €1,900 or a prison term of up to three months.
Publicans, however, are careful to talk down any notion of a reckless revolt against the ban.
Despite saying "we cannot implement the regulations" at the meeting, two months later the VFI's chief executive, Mr Tadg O'Sullivan, appears to have adopted a more measured tone. He says there is no question that publicans will break the law by failing to enforce the ban, and says the legal route is the most effective way to fight the Minister's proposals.
The VFI's stance is similar to that of the IHIA and other groups which privately acknowledge that the window of opportunity for the Government to change its mind has closed.
Instead, they are exploring such avenues as the courts and the European Union to stop the ban going ahead.
Even if the Minister for Health has won this round of the battle, the issue of enforcing the ban is going to be a difficult one.
Plans to use Health and Safety Authority officials to police the ban have been delayed because of legal problems. This leaves just 40 environmental health officers to carry out enforcement across the entire country.
Official guidelines to be issued over the implementation of the ban also tacitly acknowledge that violence could become a byproduct of enforcement, one of the publicans' key arguments against the ban.
"I don't wish to place my staff in a position of conflict where they could be at receiving end of violence," says Marc Kelleher. "And if the gardaí are going to be involved, will they have the manpower to cope with all incidents arising from the ban?"
Whatever about the huffing and puffing of publicans, Mr Martin knows the majority of the public - up to 70 per cent according to some polls - is in favour of the smoking ban.
With the dripfeed of bad news over bed closures and resistance to his plans to reform the health system, he is staking much of his political reputation on delivering the ban as promised.
It is no surprise, therefore, that he is taking his time in announcing yet another starting date.
He has already encountered unforeseen obstacles as part of his health drive.
Mr Martin, mindful of the legal challenges ahead, will seek to ensure there are no more speed bumps on this final stretch of road.