The Fianna Fáil chairman of the Western Health Board and the nurses' representative on the board have spoken out publicly against the controversial proposed smoking ban.
A third health board member has said he feels "sorry for publicans" who would be expected to implement the ban.
The board chairman, Cllr Val Hanley, a former mayor of Galway and a publican, said at a health board meeting that he had met the Minister for Health, Mr Martin, and proposed having no smoking at the bar counter or a no-smoking section in pubs.
"I also asked for a three-to-five-year lead-in to the proposed ban. I only got a half hour meeting and I have to say there has been a terrible lack of consultation with publicans on the issue."
Nurse Johanna Downes, of St Pius's Ward in University College Hospital, Galway, said she too was against the proposed national smoking ban.
"I don't agree with a total ban on smoking. Cigarettes are not a banned substance and people going to bars are adults, or at least they should be.
"They should still have the democratic decision whether they want to smoke or not. Perhaps segregated areas for smokers could be introduced as a possible compromise."
She added that health concerns in relation to smoking should be aimed at situations in which children's health is put under threat by smokers.
"I think where you have people smoking in small cars in which there are small children or other small, confined areas, where there are children in smoky atmospheres, that these situations should be tackled, rather than focusing on pubs", she said.
A third board member, Cllr Micheal Mullins, East Galway, said he felt sorry for publicans who would be expected to implement the smoking ban.
"I feel a real sympathy for people in pubs and for publicans who will very quickly have to implement this new legislation.
"I would have thought there should be some grounds for compromise on licensed premises if separate areas with ventilation were provided or separate areas where staff are actually working, so that those people who are so desperate that they must smoke when they are out socialising, can."
Cllr Hanley said the most recent change to the licensing law, which ordained that publicans must not serve drink to intoxicated customers, would also be difficult to implement.