Diplomats will still have the right to smoke in embassies across Dublin despite the Government's plan to ban smoking in the workplace.
The ban cannot be enforced in embassies which are regarded as the sovereign territory of foreign countries, a Department of Health spokesman confirmed last night.
However, Mandate, which represents many embassy workers, has called for the loophole to be closed to protect Irish workers from second-hand smoke.
There are more than 80 embassies and consulates in the Dublin area which employ hundreds of administrative workers, security staff and chauffeurs.
Mr John Douglas, a national official with Mandate, which supports the planned smoking ban, said legislation should be introduced or amended to force embassies to respect the rights of Irish workers.
"It is something that needs to be addressed. These workers' rights are totally in limbo and they're subject to exploitation. They don't have a right to have their union membership recognised and now they don't have a right to be protected from tobacco smoke," Mr Douglas said.
The inability to impose the smoking ban on diplomats reflects problems which the UN have had in trying to introduce a smoking ban in its New York headquarters this week.
A directive signed by the UN's secretary general, Mr Kofi Annan, decreed that "no smoking shall be permitted in any of the United Nations premises at headquarters" to eliminate the risks associated with second-hand smoke.
However, a UN spokesman, Mr Fred Eckhard, has conceded the UN may have a difficult time enforcing the ban with diplomats.
"We would hope that all would comply with the secretary general's announced new policy. If it comes to staff and they break the rules, they are subject to disciplinary action. I'm not sure we have the right to discipline diplomats, but we count on their co-operation," he told reporters.
One news agency yesterday reported Russia's UN ambassador, Mr Sergey Lavrov, a known smoker, as saying that Mr Annan "doesn't own this building".
It is unlikely Irish workers would be able to take legal action over exposure to tobacco smoke because of diplomatic immunity.
The only person to succeed in a legal claim was Spaniard Mr Antonio Sierra.
His embassy invoked diplomatic immunity to prevent him bringing a case for unfair dismissal in Ireland after he was dismissed as director of the Cervantes Institute.
However, he returned to Spain and took a case there as a Spanish citizen. He was awarded more than €130,000.
