Golfgate hotel has liquor licence renewed despite garda investigations

The Station House Hotel in Clifden, Co Galway. Garda investigations into the infamous golf dinner are ongoing. Picture: Hany Marzouk/PA Wire

The Galway hotel involved in the Golfgate scandal has had its liquor licence renewed for 12 months, despite being the subject of an ongoing garda investigation.

The licence, granted in the name of holding company Western Railway Operations Limited, will see the Station House Hotel in Clifden entitled to continue operations until September 30, 2021, according to the latest records of the Revenue Commissioners.

It had been unclear previously whether or not the Station House’s licence had been renewed, particularly in light of a recent Garda objection filed to the renewal of a Dublin venue’s licence after a brunch event which saw social distancing flouted in a similar manner to Golfgate.

The infamous 81-person dinner held at the Clifden hotel on August 19 gave rise to a seismic fallout which saw both Government Minister Dara Calleary and EU Trade Commissioner Phil Hogan resign their positions due to their attendance.

Two Garda investigations are currently ongoing regarding Golfgate - one into the whether or not the hotel itself obeyed Covid-19 regulations, and the other into the organisers of the event itself within the Oireachtas Golf Society.

A Garda spokesperson said that “the investigation is ongoing at this time” when asked at what stage the inquiries stood.

Previously, Garda sources indicated both that the investigations are at a relatively early stage, and that the force would have no solid basis to object to the Station House’s licence unless the investigations should find that laws had been breached in the staging of the event.

Key to those investigations will be whether or not bisecting the seated guests at the dinner by means of a partition would have been sufficient to ensure that the “maximum of 50 persons at an indoor event” Covid regulation in place at the time was adhered to.