The Minister for Health, Mr Martin, will today sign an order revoking his own regulations which would have meant the smoking ban coming into effect next Monday.
On the eve of his action, Labour's health spokeswoman, Ms Liz McManus, last night accused the Minister of "really making a mess of what was a good idea".
She said she was concerned at the number of changes there had been to the plan to impose an outright ban on smoking in workplaces, a plan announced a year ago this month.
The order of revocation, to be signed before close of business by Mr Martin today, will effectively rescind the Tobacco Smoking (Prohibition) Regulations 2003 published last October. They stated that the ban in all workplaces, including pubs and restaurants, would come into operation on January 26th. They stipulated that smoking would be prohibited in all enclosed places of work other than a dwelling.
Amendments to the regulations were published in November specifying that dwellings included hotel bedrooms and B&Bs, nursing homes, hospices, psychiatric hospitals and the Central Mental Hospital. It was also made clear at this stage that the ban would not apply to prisons.
The amended regulations were then notified in two different batches to the European Commission, first the one on prisons, and then the one on dwellings, and member-states were then given three months to raise objections.
To date none has been raised and the deadline for objections in respect of the exemption for prisons expires on February 4th and for hotel bedrooms and other such premises on February 16th. If no objections are lodged before those deadlines, it is expected that Mr Martin will immediately announce a new date for the start of the smoking ban.
At that stage a new statutory instrument, with the new start date for the ban, will be signed by Mr Martin, to replace the order being revoked.
A spokeswoman for the Minister said yesterday that the decision to notify the amendments on separate dates to the European Commission was based on legal advice. She added that it was expected the announcement of a new start date for the ban would be made within weeks. Given that Mr Martin is likely to give people a few weeks to get ready for the ban, the start date is expected to be in March.
Members of the hospitality industry are still considering seeking a judicial review of the ban.