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Ireland's dirtiest restaurants and takeaways: Here's where they are

Some counties have a far worse record than others.

shutterstock_519484897 Shutterstock / Kondor83 Shutterstock / Kondor83 / Kondor83

SOME COUNTIES ARE far more culpable than others when it comes to their food businesses’ approach to public health.

Figures obtained by TheJournal.ie under freedom of information legislation detail the counties with businesses which were closed due to breaches of food safety legislation in 2016.

The range of offences (which, along with the culprits, will be detailed tomorrow morning on TheJournal.ie) for which closures are ordered are in almost all cases hygiene-related, and vary in severity.

The most common offences relate to issues of cleanliness (“in a filthy condition” being perhaps the most oft-used phrase used in the closure orders), HACCP procedures (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point, which broadly relates to food safety), pest control, and equipment being unfit for purpose.

Overall, 61 businesses (one of which was closed twice) were served with 62 orders over the course of the year.

As you might imagine, given the disproportionate population situated in the capital, Dublin had the greatest number of closures with 21.

What you might not expect is the identity of the second worst offender – Roscommon. The county with the 22nd largest population in the Republic of Ireland has the second highest number of closures with seven.

20170309_Restaurant_Closures (1) Chart: Statista Chart: Statista

Click here to view a larger image

Meanwhile, the country’s second-most populous county, Cork, comes in third place with six closures.

The businesses closed upon inspection are split almost exactly 50:50 between restaurants and takeaways. The full list for 2016 is as follows:

  1. Dublin – 21
  2. Roscommon - 7
  3. Cork - 6
  4. Limerick - 4
  5. Wexford - 4
  6. Laois - 3
  7. Cavan - 2
  8. Clare - 2
  9. Galway - 2
  10. Meath - 2
  11. Waterford - 2
  12. Donegal - 1
  13. Kerry - 1
  14. Louth - 1
  15. Mayo - 1
  16. Offaly - 1
  17. Tipperary - 1
  18. Wicklow - 1

But if you want an indication of how serious it is to receive such an order, bear in mind that only 62 premises were closed last year. And in 2015 the HSE (which holds the contract from the Food Safety Authority of Ireland for inspecting public-facing businesses like restaurants) inspected 36,353 businesses.

All told 92% of registered businesses (and not all are registered) get seen, either by rota or following a valid complaint (such complaints, per the FSAI itself, include cigarette butts being found in chip bags, a human nail in a takeaway meal, and a live insect being found in a packaged dessert).

Taking that figure as a rough proxy, less than 1% of such concerns are closed upon inspection. So a closure is far from the norm.

Orders lifted

Generally speaking a business has a clear idea of what it must do with regard to getting its closure order lifted. In the case of two Dublin restaurants the order was in fact lifted on the same day it was applied.

Again, this is far from the norm.

The average amount of time for a closure to be lifted in Ireland in 2016 was 9.75 days. Waterford has the worst record for multiple businesses from that point of view, two closures taking an average of 16.5 days before being deemed up to scratch.

Screenshot 2017-03-11 at 17.57.59 TheJournal.ie TheJournal.ie

Dublin, Roscommon, and Cork businesses meanwhile averaged 14.3, 10.7 and 3.7 days in order to bring their premises up to standard. Dublin, is however slightly skewed by the performance of one Temple Bar eatery which took over seven months (224 days) to get its closure order lifted.

Mayo (one closure order that took 25 days to lift) has the worst record, albeit from a single sample. Wexford restaurants, by contrast, took an average of nine days for four businesses to be declared clear.

Four businesses, two in Cork and one each in Dublin and Meath, failed entirely to get the order closing their premises lifted. In the case of the Meath business, the inspector in question found that “no effort had been made to comply with a previous inspection carried out in 2015″.

A Co Laois Chinese takeaway was the only business to be closed twice, within two months, during 2016.

Check out TheJournal.ie’s roundup of the worst offences committed against food safety in Irish restaurants tomorrow morning

Read: Pizza and Mexican restaurants among food outlets served with closure orders last month

Read: Last year saw the highest number of food alerts issued in a decade

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32 Comments
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    Mute Ruth McKenna
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    Mar 12th 2017, 7:52 AM

    Can we have a list of names of the ones in Dublin?

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    Mute Brian Ward
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    Mar 12th 2017, 8:20 AM

    They are all on the FSAI website.

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    Mute PVD
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    Mar 12th 2017, 9:40 AM

    Do they publish all the reports positive ones and bad ones ? Any link

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    Mute Anastasia
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    Mar 12th 2017, 8:43 AM

    How about a list please so we can avoid them

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    Mute Leadóg Hackett
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    Mar 12th 2017, 8:26 AM

    I’m going to Belfast for chips. According to the map they’re the bees knees.

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    Mute Daniel Murphy
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    Mar 12th 2017, 9:08 AM

    Mentioning cork in the subheading and not Dublin is very misleading – the author easily dismisses Dublins number 1 spot due to population but not Cork.

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    Mute David Dineen
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    Mar 12th 2017, 9:12 AM

    Big city small problems

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    Mute Jeffrey McMahon
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    Mar 12th 2017, 1:41 PM

    Aye. Dublin has bigger problems than just the most takeaways closing. Like open gang warfare, near daily shootings and a massive drugs problem.

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    Mute mickmc
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    Mar 12th 2017, 10:34 AM

    There is 8 counties not mentioned in that list. Are we to assume everything was hunky dorey in those counties or is it the case the health inspectors in those counties are not doing their job properly.

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    Mute Tweety McTweeter
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    Mar 12th 2017, 10:57 AM

    There’s no food outlets in Leitrim. 4 pubs, a Spar, a petrol station and a church. That’s it.

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    Mute Silent Majority
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    Mar 12th 2017, 11:31 AM

    So far in 2017 on the Fsai site tbese have been closed…. Express Pizza (take away), 6 Lord Edward Street, Limerick Punjab Pantry (take away), 39 Richmond Street South, Dublin 2 Synergy Subs Ltd t/a Subway (restaurant/café), Mellview House, M1 Retail Park, Drogheda, Louth Jalapeno Mexican Cuisine Ltd (restaurant/café), 46 Drumcondra Road Lower, Drumcondra, Dublin 9 Culleton’s Fish & Chips (restaurant/café), Main Street, Bansha, Tipperary Hot Spot (take away), Parnell Street, Limerick Polonez (retailer), 20 Moore Street, Dublin 1 Pacinos Restaurant, 18 Suffolk Street, Dublin 2 Beachview Tandoori (take away), Strand Road, Laytown, Meath Kavanaghs Fine Foods Cork Ltd (service sector) A Chef Kebab Foodstall, At Daltons Pub car park, Fuerty, Roscommon Day to Day (retailer), 54 Georges Street Upper, Dun Laoghaire, Co. Dublin Palak Restaurant, High Street, Tuam, Galway Ali Baba (restaurant/café), Bank Place, Rathkeale, Limerick T/A I&A Organic Gardening and Catering (food processor), 21 Shandon Way, Shandon, Cork Auckley Ltd., The Palace (public house), 17 Ludlow Street, Navan, Meath Largo Foods (manufacturer), Kilbrew, Ashboune, Meath

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    Mute Daniel Murray
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    Mar 12th 2017, 9:35 AM

    And not one in Sligo!

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    Mute Daniel Murray
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    Mar 12th 2017, 10:28 AM

    Ah ya but we have the Wild Atlantic Way… all ye have is Hurling ha ha!

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    Mute David Walls
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    Mar 12th 2017, 11:54 AM

    @Larry Doyle: The inspectors name was Kenneth and they completed their mission. Bad egg I’d say!!

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    Mute Peter
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    Mar 12th 2017, 11:45 AM

    Environmental Health Officers do a great job and follow things through.
    I wish they could enforce a public notice on the front of the premises like in the U.K. A post on here mentioned some law in California which was even better but I can’t recall it.

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    Mute Is mise leanbh mór
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    Mar 12th 2017, 11:34 AM

    Not surprised about The Punjab Pantry.. I was driving down Richmond Street yesterday and i kid you not it is like something out of Damascus. The dirt and smell OMG is like something i have never seen. FILTH. I can only imagine the restaurants/takeaways. Rolled the windows down and quickly rolled them back up. The hum in the air i can still smell it.

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    Mute Anthony Byrne
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    Mar 12th 2017, 5:18 PM

    If the names of the places are already in the public domain, Why not publish them. This article is as good as useless if it doesn’t. I’m no wiser than I was before when it comes to deciding where not to eat. Sorry to be a moan.

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    Mute Jlocoroco
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    Mar 12th 2017, 11:09 AM

    No naming and shaming?

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    Mute Gus Sheridan
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    Mar 12th 2017, 1:10 PM

    Having lived in Roscommon I can believe it.

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    Mute David Cagney
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    Mar 12th 2017, 12:37 PM

    I’d love to see a closure per capita rate – if anyone has the time

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    Mute Phil Keenan
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    Mar 12th 2017, 11:06 AM

    Name and shame please

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    Mute Stíofán Ó Baoill
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    Mar 12th 2017, 3:18 PM

    Best chipper in the country was poison paddy’s in Blackrock village cork , when horse meet was meet and we still gave a few Bob for the black baby’s

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    Mute Helen White
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    Mar 12th 2017, 1:04 PM

    Why not name and shame the offenders? Telling us in which counties they’re located is a pointless and tells us NOTHING.

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    Mute eastsmer #IRExit
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    Mar 12th 2017, 7:22 PM

    Cleanest chipper I have come across recently is Whartons Fish and Chips in Bantry town in County Cork.

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    Mute Emmet O'Keeffe
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    Mar 12th 2017, 9:52 PM

    Is that yourself?

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    Mute Peter Mawhinney
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    Mar 12th 2017, 2:01 PM

    name and shame!

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    Mute heavyhits
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    Mar 12th 2017, 1:30 PM

    What about Moore Street, Dublin?

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    Mute Kim Kendellen
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    Mar 12th 2017, 4:19 PM

    Were in cork are they

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    Mute Helen White
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    Mar 12th 2017, 1:08 PM

    Why not name and shame the offenders? We need to know WHO they are, not just where they are so we can avoid eating at these places. The information is useless otherwise ….

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    Mute Byron D
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    Mar 12th 2017, 1:56 PM

    What was the kip in Wicklow called ? Or Andreas

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