The Minister for Health, Mr Martin, is expected to announce this week that the ban on smoking in the workplace will be introduced in late March or early April.
However, the Irish Hospitality Industry Alliance (IHIA) has warned that the ban will run into difficulty because several key issues have not been resolved.
The ban, which includes pubs and nightclubs, is expected to come into force on a Monday, to give publicans time to adjust to the new regime before the busiest nights of the week.
The deadline for objections from other EU member states to amendments in the smoking ban ends at midnight tonight but objections are unlikely as none were made to the original ban when it was notified to the EU Commission last April.
Mr Martin could therefore announce the date of the ban as soon as tomorrow or Wednesday. As soon as the date is announced, a major information campaign will begin, informing employers and the public of their obligations under the new law.
Yesterday, Mr Finbar Murphy, IHIA chairman, said Mr Martin still had not resolved the problem of providing sufficient manpower to police the ban.
He also maintained the ban would be in breach of an EU directive (98/34) which stated that member states should "park" proposed legislation for a year if the EU was thinking of bringing forward similar legislation.
EU Commissioner for Health and Consumer Protection, Mr David Byrne, has already announced plans for an EU-wide workplace smoking ban.
While the commissioner's spokesman rejected the IHIA argument on the basis that the commission's plans were at a very early stage, Mr Murphy insisted that the EU's "intention" to introduce legislation was enough to stall the Irish plans.
He said the IHIA had written twice to the European Commission since Christmas on the issue and still had not received a response.
