Temple Bar restaurant among nine premises served a closure order

An Indian restaurant in Dublin's Temple Bar area and a hotel bar on the northside of the city were served with closure orders by the Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI) last month.

Breaches of food safety legislation saw a total of nine businesses hit with closure orders in October, and a Donegal hotel was forced to pay €6,500 in fines following a successful prosecution.

Four food production premises in Dublin were subjected to temporary enforced closures along with businesses in Cork, Meath, Cavan, Limerick and Roscommon, the authority said.

Shan restaurant in Temple Bar, K&C Norton Wholesale Foods in Ballymount, Dynasty Chinese takeaway in Ballymun and the bar of the Sunnybank Hotel in Glasnevin all received closure orders from the HSE.

Millars Restaurant in Athlone, Midnight Express takeaway in Cavan, CoCo takeaway in Limerick and the potato peeling and chip production room of 7 Star Pizza in Mallow also failed inspections.

Sanction

Bella House café in Kells was hit with the longest sanction, and is yet to reopen after being shuttered by HSE inspectors on 13th October.

Closure orders are served where “there is or is likely to be a grave and immediate danger to public health”, while prohibitions orders prevent the sale of a particular food item where the production process is deemed to present a “serious risk to public health”.

Veterinary inspectors in Mayo served the only prohibition order nationwide last month, given to Paul Howley from Castlebar who was banned from selling food from his white van. The order has not yet been lifted.

Elsewhere, the HSE last month completed successful prosecutions on three businesses all based in Jackson’s Hotel, Ballybofey, Co Donegal.

Fines totalling €6,500 were imposed on the companies arising from breaches of food hygiene legislation which were detected in November 2015, and Stephen Tennant of Jackson's Hotel paid costs of €2,289.75 arising from the prosecution.

"The serving of ten Enforcement Orders shows the importance of having a robust food inspection system to check that food businesses are complying with the food safety laws," said FSAI chief executive Pamela Byrne.

“Food business owners need to take full responsibility for food safety training of all their staff, including the management, to ensure the highest standards are maintained,” she added.