Pub trade ‘at the pin of its collar’ says solicitor asking for leniency for pub that allowed smoking on its premises

A solicitor has told a court that the pub trade in Dunshaughlin and the pub trade in general was “at the pin of its collar” just now and he asked for leniency for a company that allowed smoking on its premises.

The pub owners admitted through their solicitor Maurice Regan in court that it had allowed smoking on its premises

Navan District Court was told that authorised officers of the Health Service Executive had attended Carberry’s Bar, a pub operated by O’Reilly’s Taverns Ltd at Main Street, Dunshaughlin on 9th May last year and on inspection they found a smoking structure in place that didn’t comply with the requirements of the Public Health Tobacco Act. Smoking was taking place there.

Prosecuting solicitor Mr Scanlon said that there had been a previous notification to the owners that the structure was not compliant. Since the visit work had been carried out on the premises and the defendant had moved substantially towards compliance.

He had removed hedging and some panels. Mr Scanlon said there were no previous convictions. There had been cooperation from the start, the solicitor said.

The HSE had costs of €668.92.

Defending solicitor Maurice Regan said that the area concerned was in an outside area and the sheltered area was 15% outside the permitted scale. It wasn’t as if the smoking had taken place in the internal areas. It was a longstanding premises with no previous convictions. Carberry’s had gone from a day-long premises to only opening at 4pm each day “the business is just not there”.

Judge Eirinn McKiernan said that given the very difficult environment for the pub trade and to help them stay open and function she decided to impose a fine of €300 with four months to pay and she also decided not to make any order for costs against the company.