The anti-smoking group ASH Ireland has called for a smoking ban in all cars in the interests of health and road safety.
While the workplace smoking legislation banned lighting up in public vehicles such as taxis, it did not restrict smoking in private vehicles.
Prof Luke Clancy, chairman of ASH Ireland, said smoking in cars raised serious safety issues. "Smokers must light up, hold the cigarette, deposit the ash and dispose of the cigarette - all whilst driving," he said.
"If it is not safe to hold a mobile phone while driving, it's difficult to see how it can be safe to smoke." Prof Clancy said the health risks were also intensified as people were smoking in a confined space. "Recent research from the HSE West found that 9 per cent of non-smokers allowed adults to smoke in a car with children present, while 37 per cent of smokers allowed this.
Prof Clancy made the proposal to mark National No Smoking Day which falls today, Ash Wednesday. More people try to give up smoking today, the first day of Lent, than any other day of the year. A survey commissioned by Nicorette found that more than 315,000 will try to quit smoking this Lent.
To highlight National No Smoking Day, the Irish Cancer Society (ICS) has launched a campaign which focuses on the damage smoking does to the skin. The campaign warns about the prevalence of "smoker's face", which makes people look older than they are, according to Norma Cronin, ICS tobacco control health promotion manager.
"Smokers in their 40s often have as many facial wrinkles as non-smokers in their 60s," she said. Smoker's face is present in approximately half of smokers irrespective of age, social class and estimated lifetime consumption of cigarettes. The characteristics of smoker's face include wrinkles radiating at right angles from the lips or corners of the eyes, lines on the cheeks and lower jaw.
An estimated 950,000 people now smoke - an increase of 0.2 per cent on 2005 figures.
The National Smokers' Quitline run by the HSE with the Irish Cancer Society can be contacted at 1850-201 203.
