Employers' group IBEC has added its voice to the growing chorus of industry-based calls for changes to the Minister for Health's proposed ban on smoking in the workplace.
It says more research should be conducted before the ban is implemented and is in favour of retaining designated smoking rooms in the workplace.
The call for changes to the legislation from one of the country's most powerful lobby groups, which represents 7,000 businesses, is seen by many as a boost to the campaign for a compromise over the proposed ban.
The Minister for Health, Mr Martin, however, has said there will be "no compromise on health" and is determined the total ban will be implemented.
Mr Tony Briscoe, IBEC's assistant director of social policy, said the ban would be "hugely problematic" for businesses and individual firms would face costs of around €3,000 if they were to comply with the new regulations.
In a position paper, the group says employers have made great strides to cut smoking in the workplace by introducing designated smoking rooms and sheltered locations outdoors.
It warns that a total ban would remove some of these "safety valves" and would lead to smoking going "underground" and increasing the potential for fire hazards and threatening behaviour by employees who are obliged to comply with the rules.
It says more research is needed into the links between environmental tobacco smoke and cancer before embarking on a wide-ranging ban. IBEC says Department of Health-commissioned research only makes a qualified link between environmental smoke and cancer.
"The taking of measures proposed should be based on conclusive and unequivocal evidence and opinion, particularly in the context of effecting a total ban on environmental tobacco smoke," IBEC's position paper says.
It adds that plans to include environmental tobacco smoke on a list of carcinogens would be premature until a European decision is advanced and established.
IBEC, which includes some hoteliers and guesthouse owners among its members, also backs up the position of the Irish Hospitality Alliance and says it will be difficult to enforce the ban in hotel or guesthouse rooms.
"It is difficult to see how proprietors of such establishments will reasonable address contravention in a retroactive sense, where they discover a visitor has not complied with the law," the position paper says.
It also says it would be "unfair and inappropriate" to place total responsibility for enforcement on the shoulders of employers and the business community. Authorities who are charged with enforcing the ban must be adequately resourced, the paper states. Mr Briscoe said that, overall, IBEC supported the proposed restrictions and recognised its positive health implications, but said the measures did not "adequately address the practicalities" of enforcing the ban.
