Environmental health officers are to meet Fine Gael TD Mr John Deasy tomorrow in relation to him breaking the smoking ban in the Dáil bar last week.
The meeting, which had been arranged for yesterday but was postponed, could lead to a prosecution being taken against the Waterford TD, who has stood by his actions.
Refusing to apologise yesterday, Mr Deasy said Fine Gael TDs were never given a genuine opportunity to oppose the smoking legislation during its passage through the Oireachtas.
"I broke the law and I will pay the fine. People might be obeying the law, but they don't like it. The media and politicians have completely lost it. They are not in touch with the people," Mr Deasy said.
"But I get annoyed when I think that I could be penalised for this when you think of some of the criminal excess that has taken place in the Dáil over the last 20 years," told The Irish Times.
Mr Deasy was sacked by the Fine Gael leader, Mr Enda Kenny, from his position as the party's justice spokesperson within hours of it emerging that he had smoked three cigarettes in the Dáil bar.
His actions have left party colleagues exasperated: "His departure from the front bench is the silver lining to the silver lining, frankly," said one senior Fine Gael figure yesterday.
Despite his actions, Mr Deasy said he believed that the ban engineered by the Minister for Health, Mr Martin, is "a good thing in the long-term" for the country. "But even non-smokers feel that some accommodation could have been found.
"I tried to comply with the law, but I ended up breaking the law in the end," he declared.
He said he had tried to gain access from the Dáil bar to a yard through a fire-door.
But bar staff refused to open it saying that they did not have permission from the Dáil authorities to do so.
"There was no attempt to accommodate me. I didn't think about walking out to the front of the building at the time," said Mr Deasy, adding that the law will make "pariahs" of ordinarily law-abiding people.
The yard was listed by the Dáil authorities as a designated smoking area the day after his actions.
"Three other places were designated beforehand. Why was the yard designated afterwards?" the Waterford TD said.
He said he had become "fed up" with the justice portfolio and expressed worries about Fine Gael's future since, he claimed, it is failing to be "direct, or strong enough".
