Officials working for both the anti-smoking group ASH and the Office of Tobacco Control have also admitted that the ban on smoking in the workplace in Ireland has failed to change the generally positive attitude towards smoking here.

A European Commission Green Paper on smoking has prompted the examination of the possibility of enforcing a smoking ban in public spaces, including "outdoor areas around entrances to buildings". A spokeswoman for the Office of Tobacco Control said that, along with the Department of Health, this recommendation will be "something we [the OTC] will be looking at".

"The idea of banning smoking outside pubs as well as inside them, she said, would be a measure aimed at protecting the health of staff members who work in that vicinity: doormen, bouncers and so on."

Dangerous levels "In terms of protection of staff, the science shows that passive smoking is unhealthy and the legislation was brought in to protect workers from second-hand smoke."

The legislation is related to indoor structures, but if employees in an outdoor area were finding problems, the science is there to encourage employers to look at the issue and look after their workers."

A recent study by Maurice Mulcahy, a principal environmental officer in the HSE, found that there were still dangerous levels of chemicals from cigarette smoke inside pubs and bars, despite the fact that people were now smoking outside such premises. And staff members who spend time in the doorways of pubs and bars were found to now be worse off than before the ban in terms of their exposure to passive smoke. Some publicans have begun to enforce 'exclusion zones' directly outside the doors of the premise, but there is no legislation guiding such measures.

At an OTC conference last week, the Dean of the University of Michigan's School of Public Health, Ken Warner, voiced his disappointment with Irish attitudes towards smoking. "[Warner] signalled that he was struck by the fact that Ireland was the world leader, but at the same time the problem is not solved; seats were outside pubs, smokers were outside, " the OTC spokeswoman said. "He felt himself that, compared to the United States, smoking looks quite glamorous here. Certainly as a world leader, we have to take that issue on board. In terms of the way we could approach it, we can only implement legislation. Society and culture has to change, " said the OTC spokeswoman.

Prof Luke Clancy of the anti-smoking group ASH echoed this sentiment, adding that publicans were testing the limit of the law when it came to outdoor smoking areas. "There has been a tendency to push that to the limit, " he told the Sunday Tribune, "some of the outside areas that have been used may or may not be complying with the law. . . this tendency to create socalled beer gardens with heaters. . . ecologically, it's very bad.

Dangerous levels "I feel that these new outdoor areas have led to a glamorisation of smoking, in the sense that people prefer to be sitting outside with heaters, than inside. It's the cool place to be.

"The main aim is to protect workers from second-hand smoke but we also want to see the de-normalisation of smoking. If it's made sexy or glamorous, then that doesn't de-normalise it. These attempts to thwart the ban are giving off the wrong signal."

In 2006, four premises in Ireland were successfully prosecuted for having illegal outdoor smoking areas.