Herbal cigarettes will not be subject to the smoking ban, according to the Minister for Health, Mr Martin. Liam Reid reports.
However, he has rejected claims that their use in pubs will make the tobacco smoke ban almost impossible for publicans to enforce.
The tobacco-free cigarettes will be available in pub cigarette vending machines from January and are being marketed as an alternative to tobacco products.
Made from various herbs, including rose petals and red clover, the cigarettes contain no nicotine or tobacco.
However, tar levels are the same as many brands of tobacco cigarettes.
Their promoters, cigarette vending machine operators, believe they will be particularly attractive for social smokers who only smoke when in a pub.
They have also warned that the herbal cigarettes will make the enforcement of the ban extremely difficult for publicans.
"It will be a very difficult one for the publicans," according to Mr Gerry Lawlor of the Irish Cigarette Machine Operators Association (ICMOA).
"How can they go to a customer who is smoking and tell them to stop smoking. He can say, 'sorry, I don't have to, I'm smoking herbal cigarettes', and there's nothing the publican can do. I think it's going to create big enforcement difficulties because the publican has no power to search a person and to physically take a cigarette from a person."
The herbal cigarettes will cost between €3.50 and 4.00. They are normally available in pharmacies and health shops as a smoking cessation aid.
A spokesman for the Minister for Health said Mr Martin has rejected suggestions that the herbal cigarettes will make the smoking ban impossible to enforce.
"He doesn't accept that at all, and he doesn't take this very seriously.
"These cigarettes have a very pungent smell and there is a very strong differential between this smell and tobacco smoke."
The use of herbal cigarettes is "almost non-existent" in Ireland, and it was not expected that there would be any significant change to that, the spokesman added.