When does a workplace stop being a workplace? Or perhaps where does a workplace stop being a workplace?
While such questions may appear somewhat tedious and mundane, they are exactly the questions businesses are now asking the Department of Health because of the imminent smoking ban.
Indeed, such issues as to exactly where the smoking ban applies may eventually come before the courts, the Department says. The department has already received various queries about the specific details of the ban, in order to establish if there was any way of avoiding it.
The questions centre on what constitutes a workplace, as this is central to the new regulations. Under the limited details published about the regulations, smoking will be banned in all workplaces.
The questions have included whether clubs or bars could create special enclosed areas, which staff would not be allowed to enter.
Another major query has centred on pubs attached to private houses. Could customers not pop into the kitchen or sitting room for their cigarette?
A spokesman for the the Department said there is no room for manoeuvre and no way for businesses to avoid the ban. "You can't create a special room, it would still be within a workplace. That's our position. Any sort of dispute on it will essentially have to be argued in court."
The term workplace for the purposes of the ban is defined in the Health, Safety and Welfare at Work Act of 1989.
That act defines a place of work as "any place, land or other location at, in, upon or near which work is carried on, whether occasionally or otherwise".
Not much room for manoeuvre there either. And if there is any doubt, it defines places of work as including "in particular" premises, offshore installations, vehicles, and temporary buildings, such as tents.
Therefore a self-employed person in his own office with no other employee is barred from lighting up there. As is a crane driver 100 feet up on his own in a cabin.
Those who want to avoid a smoking ban at their wedding by having a private do in a marquee can also think again, unless they are serving the food and drink themselves. While private dwellings are excluded from the legislation, it does cover all workplaces, so the employment of waiters or nannies could come under the Act.
Under the current proposals, those of a wealthier sort might also be prevented from smoking in their own homes.
There are currently no exemptions in the proposed regulations. Therefore domestic staff, from butlers to scullery maids, and perhaps more relevant to modern Irish society, nannies, may also be able to invoke the new legislation to ensure their workplace is smoke free.
The current proposals do not differentiate between outdoor and indoor working areas. Therefore beer gardens, terraces, or even building sites could also come under the Act.
However, a Department of Health spokesman said that even though this may be the case at present, the new regulations would only apply to indoor workplaces.