A Dublin restaurant was twice forced to shut down temporarily last month because of a pest infestation, it emerged yesterday.
Environmental health officers from the South Western Area Health Board discovered the infestation at the Jewel in the Crown on South Fitzwilliam Street in the city centre on September 25th.
The premises was immediately served with a closure order as it was believed to pose "a grave and immediate danger" to public health.
A pest control team was brought in and the closure order was lifted by the health board the following day. However two days later, when it was re-inspected, health officers found the pest infestation was still present and the premises was ordered to close again. It was allowed to reopen on October 2nd.
The restaurant was one of three served with closure orders under the Food Safety Authority of Ireland Act last month. Other restaurants were the Pettigo Inn in Pettigo, Co Donegal, and Wiseguys Pizza Pie Factory Limited on North Main Street, Wexford.
Mr Peter Whelan, director of service contacts with the Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI), said he could not disclose the reasons for the closures in Donegal and Wexford, other than to say both restaurants posed a danger to public health.
He said it was the policy of the FSAI not to talk about individual cases but it was explaining what happened at the Jewel in the Crown because it was unusual for a premises to be ordered closed twice in one month.
Meanwhile the FSAI confirmed an improvement order was also served last month on La Strada restaurant in Dún Laoghaire, Co Dublin. It must comply with the order by January 30th next.