Firms pay charity donations after employing people with no work permits

Two companies taken to court for employing non-national persons who had no work permits are to pay donations to charity.

The Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment had directed prosecutions against Keegan Quarries, Prammon, Rathmolyon and the Headfort Arms Hotel, Kells.

Prosecuting solicitor David McEntee told Navan District Court that inspectors had found that the Keegan company had employed two foreign nationals who were without permits on periods between 15th February 2024 and 27th June 2024, and also on days between 9th May 2024 and 27th June of the same year. Judge Eirinn McKiernan directed the company to pay a €300 donation to Navan Meals on Wheels.

A suggestion to adjourn the Headfort Arms case until the New Year was rejected by the judge who said that the company was a very reputable one and a longstanding business and she wanted the case to be dealt with at the December sitting of the court.

Mr McEntee said that the department’s inspector carried out an unannounced inspection of the hotel but found at a later announced inspection that there was a suspected breach of the regulations.

The court was told that the breach had happened as a result of the fallout from the Covid pandemic when the hotel lost a lot of its Polish staff.

The judge directed the company to pay €300 donation to Navan Meals on Wheels along with costs of €984. If the amount was paid by 16th January she would strike out the summonses.

In the case of a Slane takeaway prosecuted at the same court last September for a similar offence, the court was told that a donation of €200 to Meath Women’s Refuge along with costs of €1,002 had been paid by Naoise Nahar trading as Big Bites Takeaway. The judge then struck out the summonses.