A judge has criticised a well-known publican, accusing him of engaging in "child exploitation" and fining his business €66,500 for breaches of child worker legislation.
At Dublin District Court, Judge John Coughlan yesterday told Noel Smyth he was not fit to be a publican after hearing that two pubs of which he was a director had 35 times breached legislation governing the hours minors may work.
In one case a 15-year-old girl worked until 1.30am, some 5½ hours after she should have finished. "This is called child exploitation," Judge Coughlan told Mr Smyth. "You're not fit to be a publican."
The offences were committed at Smyths public house, Malahide, Co Dublin, and at The Cock Tavern, Swords, Co Dublin. Both pubs are owned by Thomas Smyth and Sons Ltd, of which Mr Smyth is a director.
The judge summoned Smyth to the witness box and told him he wanted a "black and white explanation" for why minors had been working at his bars long after their finishing time under the Protection of Young Persons (Employment) Act.
Smyth said the ages of his young workers were kept in a file in an office to which his bar managers did not have ready access. One minor had lied about her age.
"I can guarantee you judge that it will never happen again," Mr Smyth said. He insisted the business was "well run" to which Judge Coughlan replied: "It is not. That's my answer back to you."
The company's office manager, Sandra Hunt, said that when the dates of birth of young workers had been posted on the roster the staff had asked for them to be taken down because they feared being covered in "eggs and flour" by their colleagues on their birthdays. She said anybody under the age of 18 now working in either pub was confined to restaurant duties and was off the premises by 9.30pm.
The breaches detected during a random inspection of records by a Department of Enterprise inspector last July were "the manager's failure", she said.
Judge Coughlan did not accept Mr Smyth's explanation. "In my view he is not fit to hold a licence. I'm directing gardaí to object to the renewal of his licence in September. It's an absolute disgrace so it is."
He imposed a near maximum fine of €1,900 in respect of each of the 35 breaches, none of which was contested yesterday.
Mr Smyth declined to comment when leaving the court except to say the matter would be appealed.
But in some of the cases, those in the 16-17 year bracket had worked until 2am and in the case of the 15-year-old, she had worked until 1.30am.
All staff at Smyths had fully co-operated and the records of staff rostering had been properly kept and were up to date.
Also before Judge Coughlan yesterday was Portmarnock Hotel and Golf Links which had committed 24 breaches under the legislation, for which 12 summonses were issued.
Mr Dowd said the cases involved two boys aged 16 and 17 at the time the breaches took place in the first half of 2004. They had worked for a number of hours later than the 10pm limit, up to 2.57am in one case. In some cases they had worked up to almost 15 hours in one day.
Judge Coughlan imposed fines of €1,500 in respect of each of the 12 summonses, or €18,000 in total.
