Legislative councillors will later this month hold hearings into the generational smoking ban, which has been proposed by Windermere independent MLC Ivan Dean.

The inquiry comes six months after the government described the smoking ban as unworkable and impractical.

It suggested at the time that the bill be further scrutinised by a committee.

In a written submission to the Public Health Amendment (Tobacco Free Generation) Bill 2014 inquiry, the government again said it doubted whether the proposed legislation would be workable.

It said there were serious issues with the legislation’s enforceability and likely effectiveness.

‘‘Regulation for its own sake, without strong evidence to support expected outcomes, is not something this government considers to be desirable,’’ the government said.

‘‘While we commend the aspiration of this bill, we must acknowledge the difficulties with this proposal and continue to question its likely efficacy.’’

However, acting director of public health Mark Veitch told MLCs the enforcement would be feasible if extra funding was made available to the department.

The inquiry received 62 written submissions, 48 of which opposed the bill. Most of these were small business owners and tobacco retailers who feared they would be unfairly punished.

The legislation would ban retailers from selling cigarettes to anyone not 18 years old by 2018.

However, the cohort would still be legally allowed to smoke and to receive cigarettes from family and friends.

Mr Dean said tobacco companies and retailers were overstating the impact the rolling ban would have on business.

‘‘They won’t feel any real impact of this for 20 or 30 years,’’ he said.

‘‘There’s only a very small group of people that turn 18 each year in Tasmania, and only one in five of those would smoke.’’

Mr Dean is still confident of winning the government’s approval for his bill.

‘‘I’m hoping that with all the evidence produced, we’ll be able to satisfy them that the legislation is workable,’’ he said.