Two junior ministers have reportedly joined growing opposition within Fianna Fáil to Health Minister Micheál Martin’s plans to introduce an all-out ban on smoking in workplaces from next January.

The Labour Party’s Derek McDowell has become the first person to be elected to the Seanad’s commercial and industrial panel.

Fine Gael’s Mary Jackman has become the latest candidate to be eliminated from the Seanad elections for the commercial and industrial panel.