An Irish pub owner has defended his position after he was embroiled in a heated confrontation with a customer over the "excessive use of electricity".
The man was in Oscars Cafe Bar in Dublin on Tuesday where he ordered a drink and then took out an extension lead to charge a laptop, phone and a tablet for four-and-a-half hours..
Pub owner Ronan Flood said after noticing what was going on, he simply unplugged the extension lead when the customer went to the toilet to avoid a confrontation.
"I plugged the extension out at the wall - thinking that the guest would take the hint," he told Newstalk's Lunchtime Live show.
"I headed off to one of the other bars, and I came back... and the same guest was still sitting there with the devices plugged in.
"In fairness, he had got a second drink - but it was like 'Ah here, 4.5 hours this is a bit much'."
Mr Flood said he then decided to confront the customer over the "excessive use" of electricity during an energy crisis.
He said: "I went down to the customer and just said to him that 'This is excessive use of our electricity, you're kind of taking the proverbial with the plug board'.
"I just asked him to put the plug board away".
The customer questioned if this meant he was not welcome in the bar and the owner replied: "You're welcome to be in the bar, but not if you're excessively using our electricity.
"He walked out the door - we both had a mutually respectful conversation, and he went on his way."
The pub owner said the interaction "grated on him later on in the day" and he decided to post about it on social media where it garnered plenty of attention.
Using the Oscars Cafe Bar Twitter account he wrote: "[Seen] it all now. [Customer] sits for 4.5 hours and plugs 3 devices into his own plug board. Ireland 2022 summed up in 1 image #whatenergycrisis #cheeky"
People took to the comments to side with the pub owner with one person writing: "Shocking carry on!!!"
Another agreed saying: "It's akin to stealing in plain sight."
Speaking on the radio show Mr Flood added: "We'd see nobody stuck - anyone that comes in and needs to charge up a phone, we're under no illusions here, we know it's not a colossal cost to charge devices.
"But everything has to be done in moderation, and it wasn't in this case".
READ NEXT:
- All we know as gardai quiz woman over death of two kids in Westmeath car blaze
- Brian O'Driscoll left red faced as he takes home wrong dog from pet groomer
- First blast of cold weather just days away for Ireland as Met Eireann forecast northerly airflow to take over
- This Irish pub in 'the middle of nowhere' is Ireland's best gastropub - but why is it so highly rated?
- We checked out Dunnes, Tesco, SuperValu and Lidl and found the best value option for you
Get breaking news to your inbox by signing up to our newsletter
