Publican defends Irish-only bar staff policy

A high-profile publican is defending his position that front-of-house staff in his bars should be Irish.

Charlie Chawke owns nine pubs, including the Orchard Inn in the Rathfarnham area of Dublin, bought for a record €22m in 2005.

He believes his business' winning formula includes having Irish staff at the bar counter and when greeting customers.

However, he insisted he has nothing against hiring foreign nationals, claiming that it is important to tourists and other customers to have an "Irish welcome".

"They should be met by someone Irish when they enter the pub," he said.

"And we have lovely Irish people that'll meet you and seat you and greet you and have a lovely Irish smile.

"And that doesn't mean we don't have foreign people, we have indeed lots of them - our chefs, I'd say the majority of them are probably foreign, and our prep people and cleaning people, and the waiting staff - a lot of them are foreign as well."