Hard-hitting television advertisements are to be used by the Government in a campaign beginning next week to encourage people to quit smoking before the New Year ban.
The advertisements, which will graphically display the damage done to human organs by smoking, borrow heavily from examples aired by federal Australian authorities four years ago.
The Minister for Health, Mr Martin, will today open the anti-smoking campaign called Every Cigarette Is Doing You Damage, along with the creation of a State-funded helpline for those wanting to quit.
Meanwhile, the Department of Health rejected criticisms from the leader of the Labour Party, Mr Pat Rabbitte, that regulations necessary to implement next year's smoking ban are contradictory.
Though the Labour Party supported the restrictions, Mr Rabbitte said: "We called for clarity, consistency and workability on the issue, instead of the mounting confusion that is being generated by present policy."
The regulations, which apply to all places of work, could mean that farmers would be prevented from smoking "while walking on their own fields".
He said there was no reason why a street would not be classed "as a place of work within the meaning of those regulations. It is the workplace of gardaí, traffic wardens, street cleaners, electricity and telecom cable-layers, LUAS builders and so on.
"In fact, it is difficult to think of any location in the entire country at, in, on or near which work is not carried on, at least occasionally. And every such location will fall within the Minister's ban."
The Department rejected this interpretation, and said the regulations made it clear that the regulations apply only to enclosed places of work.
Meanwhile, Mr Rabbitte claimed that regulations from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), which will come into force in parallel with the Minister's, do not exempt people smoking in their own homes if other people are employed.
The HSE regulations, titled the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work (Carcinogens) Regulations, 2001, identify environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) as a carcinogen and, therefore, ban workplace smoking.
Mr Rabbitte said: "The crucial thinking is that: on the basis of the inadequacy of current ventilation technology to deal effectively with ETS, the remaining solution is a ban of smoking in any workplace designed to be 100 per cent enclosed."
"And the essential restriction proposed in this draft would be that 'no employer shall knowingly or intentionally permit the smoking of tobacco products in an enclosed place'."
However, the Department disagreed with the Labour Party's interpretation. "The Health and Safety Executive has said that the regulations do not apply in those parts of the home that are used for private purposes," a spokeswoman said.
