The economic cost of an outright ban on smoking in pubs and restaurants will be detailed in a series of public meetings which start this week.
Eight meetings aimed at employers and suppliers in the hospitality sector will be hosted by the Irish Hospitality Industry Alliance (IHIA), which has been set up to fight the proposed outright smoking ban.
The alliance of hotels, pubs, restaurants and guesthouses, which claims 3,500 members, says the ban could cost 65,000 jobs in pubs and restaurants. However, this claim has been described as "over the top" by the Minister for Health, Mr Martin.
An IHIA delegation travelled to New York recently for meetings with industry colleagues and says business there reported falls of up to 40 per cent since a similar smoking ban was introduced.
Mr Finbar Murphy, from the alliance, said the aim of the public meetings in towns and cities including Cork, Tralee, Sligo, Galway and Dublin was to highlight the costs and other implications of the forthcoming ban. It will also outline actions the hospitality industry should take in an attempt to limit the extent of the ban.
The Minister should conduct an economic impact study on the ban, which had been misnamed as a pub ban, but would also include guesthouses, B&Bs and other accommodation, he added.
Accommodation-owners would have to install highly sensitive smoke detectors in bedrooms, with the "smoke police" inspecting the computer panels of the units to see if the ban was breached, said Mr Murphy.
"The cost of installing these devices could run to thousands of euro for small establishments and will be a huge additional cost burden," he added.
Mr Murphy also warned that hospitality businesses in Border areas would lose out to competitors in the North, which does not have such an outright ban. He said consumers in New York State had already "voted with their feet" because of the ban there, by switching to establishments in neighbouring New Jersey.
"Clearly in the five Border counties we will be handing a substantial advantage to the hospitality sector on the northern side of the Border," he said.
The alliance wants self-employed business owner-operators who do not have other employees to be exempted from the ban, as well as accommodation facilities in guesthouses, hotels and B&Bs.
It also wants businesses to be able to offer choices for both smoking and non-smoking customers.