Politicians were left hungry last week after a ‘fumes’ problem led to the closure of Leinster House’s two main restaurants.
The Irish Mirror can reveal that it was because of a roof job involving tar work gone wrong.
It saw toxic fumes seep into the kitchen and spoil all the food prepared for the busy lunch trade last Tuesday.
All the grub was dumped.
There was confusion in the house of parliament on Tuesday when the visitors’ restaurants (the regular canteen) and the more salubrious Members’ restaurant were both shuttered.
On a busy day with the Dail’s new term starting on Wednesday, mysterious notices went up on the doors of the restaurants saying they were closed because of ‘fumes.’
It turned out that the problem was to do with workers laying felt on the roof who were working with melting tar.
The Irish Mirror understands that workers were laying felt and bitumen on the roof in an area directly above the Members’ restaurant.
Inadvertently, smoke and the associated toxic fumes from burning bitumen started to make its way into the Leinster House main kitchen, resulting in an evacuation and quick closure of the restaurants.
It’s believed the work was meant to be carried out over the Christmas break when there were less people in Leinster House.
But apparently Covid staffing problems scuppered this plan.
A spokeswoman for the Houses of the Oireachtas told the Mirror last night: “Work was being carried out on the roof of the Members restaurant - repair works.
“As would be expected with the nature of such works, there were fumes.
“Those fumes were sucked through vents into the restaurant and self service.
“As a precautionary measure, the Members restaurant and self service closed.
“The small amount of uncovered food on display in the self-service was disposed of.”
The Dail restaurants and bars are run extremely well and are rarely closed.
The last time the bars or restaurants were closed on a normal working day was when a rat was found to be on the loose in the bar.
This was in July 2019 when none other than the current Taoiseach, then just the leader of Fianna Fail in opposition, Micheal Martin, was one of the TDs who spotted a “big, fat rat” in the bar.
The bar remained closed for almost a week while the pest control experts did their job.
