A well-known Dublin restaurant was fined €11,250 yesterday after a health officer found evidence of dirt and rat droppings during an inspection.
The Old Dublin, Francis Street, pleaded guilty to nine breaches of the food hygiene regulations on October 18th, 2001.
An environmental health officer found built-up dirt in parts of the kitchen and cold units, inadequate staff sanitary facilities, broken wall and floor tiles and rat droppings under a sink in the clean-up area.
An "insectocutor" - a device for killing insects - was not working, and no flyscreens had been provided over skylights.
Since the visit, hygiene standards had improved considerably and a pest control company was now employed to monitor the premises, Dublin District Court heard.
A solicitor for the restaurant said a lot of development had been going on in the area at the time of the inspection, and some dust and dirt would have got into the kitchen.
Judge Michael Connellan said there seemed to have been a build-up of general dirt over a period of time.
Rejecting a plea to reduce the fines, he said: "This is an extremely serious matter as it is a restaurant open to the public and it had very bad standards and was very dirty".
He imposed fines of €1,250 for each breach and added that if the restaurant had pleaded not guilty and been convicted he would have imposed the maximum fine of more than €1,904 per breach.
He also ordered the restaurant to pay €850 in health board costs.