The Minister for Health, Mr Martin, said he supports a large increase in the price of cigarettes.
An Oireachtas committee on Health and Children has recommended a £2 per packet increase in the price of 20 cigarettes over the next four years to reduce the number of smokers.
Mr Martin said on RTE radio he "would welcome any suggestions emanating from the Oireachtas committee which would support the Government's stance in terms of moving towards a tobacco-free society".
The committee recommended smoking be banned in pubs to reduce passive smoking. The Minister said he was looking at a range of measures to control and restrict passive smoking. "I will give careful consideration to the proposals of the subcommittee in relation to public houses," he said.
"I have called for cigarettes to be taken out of the Consumer Price Index, or that we create a new index, excluding cigarette prices, which would have the agreement of the social partners, congress and IBEC and others who developed the Partnership for Prosperity and Fairness," he said.
Meanwhile, the Vintners Federation of Ireland (VFI) said proposals by the committee to ban smoking in pubs was "unworkable, unrealistic and unenforceable". It said the only measures to benefit non-smoking and smoking customers was the provision of new air systems.
Evening surgical operations at St Colmcille's Hospital in Loughlinstown, Co Dublin, are still cancelled due to a nurses' pay dispute.
Theatre nurses, who are members of the Irish Nurses' Organisation (INO), refused to work on call on Monday and yesterday. Surgery after 4.30 p.m. was cancelled.
Surgical accident and emergency ambulance calls were diverted by the health board to St Vincent's and other hospitals.
A spokesman for the board said Monday night was "a quiet night" with one case diverted to St Vincent's. The INO is seeking an increase in the on-call pay rate for theatre nurses in the hospital.