The Minister for Health, Mr Martin, has rejected criticism that new anti-tobacco legislation represents an "appalling climbdown".
Mr Martin was responding to the Fine Gael health spokesman, Mr Gay Mitchell, who said the Public Health (Tobacco) Bill 2001 was an innocuous response to a grave public health issue.
He was particularly critical of the lack of a specific ban on smoking in pubs.
However, Mr Martin insisted yesterday that he did have the power under the legislation to introduce a ban once the Bill has been passed. "We have given ourselves the power in the Bill to ban smoking in pubs or other places. It's very clear the Minister has the power to introduce a ban by regulation."
Mr Mitchell said this was not specific and no particular date was mentioned. He said it was a "Janus-like two-faced act" which allowed the Minister to mislead health interests into believing that he was taking real action, while at the same time telling the publicans that he was not banning smoking in pubs.
"What is it to be? Who is the Minister trying to hoodwink?"
The aim of the Bill is to provide stronger laws for regulating and controlling the sale, marketing and smoking of tobacco products and for enforcing those controls. It states that a person who advertises a tobacco product will be guilty of an offence, although there are certain exceptions at the discretion of the Minister.
The Act provides for the establishment of the Tobacco Control Agency to advise and assist the Minister on tobacco control measures. It will have the power to secure documentation from tobacco manufacturers, the power of entry to premises and to carry out examinations and test their products.
It provides for a ban on tobacco advertising, with certain exceptions, and on all forms of sponsorship by the tobacco industry.
The legislation stops short of banning vending machines, as was originally planned. However they can now be placed only in bars and clubs and within the view of the employees. A person wishing to purchase from a machine will first have to purchase a token from behind the counter.
Shops selling cigarettes will be banned from displaying any advertising or displaying the product. They may show a single sign informing customers they are on sale. Retailers will have to register with the Tobacco Control Agency, for which they will be charged a fee.
If found to be in breach of the regulations, they will face a ban of between three months and a year and a fine of £1,500.
Cigarette packets may no longer carry statements such as "low tar", "lite" or "mild", implying that a particular brand is less harmful, according to the Bill. It provides for the banning of smoking in public service vehicles, aircraft, trains, hospitals, all or part of schools and colleges, State buildings, cinemas/ theatres and other places "normally used for indoor public entertainment".
Mr Mitchell said the Bill would be scrutinised at committee stage by the Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children. "The Bill as circulated is in itself a smokescreen as it purports to ban smoking in places where smoking is already prohibited," he said.