Nial Ring sues State over Covid ‘lock-in’ rule break charges

The High Court has set aside three days next month to hear a challenge brought by Dublin city councillor Nial Ring, two of his sons and his business partner over the validity of Covid regulations which they were charged with breaching four years go.

They are seeking an order declaring that the regulations were not valid as they were not enacted properly.

Mr Ring, a former Lord Mayor of Dublin, and his business partner Liam McGrattan were charged with two offences under the emergency lockdown restrictions brought in by incoming taoiseach Simon Harris, when he was health minister, on April 7, 2020.

At the time, the lockdown restrictions prevented people from leaving their homes or travelling more than 2km for exercise unless it was for an essential purpose.

Mr McGrattan and Mr Ring, who is an independent councillor for the north inner city, were charged with hosting a gathering at The Ref public house on Ballybough Road in breach of the statutory instrument brought in by Mr Harris which was based on powers set out in the 1947 Health Act.

Mr McGrattan, Mr Ring and his sons Stephen and Darragh are also charged with breach of Regulation 4 of the Covid restrictions which said a person could not leave their residence without a reasonable excuse.

These included providing an essential service and shopping for food, fuel or medicinal products.

The four men have been before the district court on two occasions on the charges, with the first appearance on May 10, 2021, and the most recent on July 7 last year.

A person found guilty of an offence under the regulations can be fined up to €4,000 or imprisoned for up to one month, or both.

The four men instigated a High Court challenge against the health regulations in April 2022 and are represented by the Dublin firm Canning Landy & Co.

Ireland, the Minister of Health and the Attorney General have been named as the defendants in the action. The case has been set down for a three-day hearing from April 30 in the High Court’s Chancery division.

Mr Ring, who is running in the upcoming local elections, confirmed this weekend that the legal challenge was based on their assertion that the health regulations brought in by Mr Harris were “not enacted properly”.

He insisted that he and the others who were charged had been in an office outside the pub at the time the gardaí called in to them.

When contacted by the Irish Independent days after he was questioned by gardaí in April 2020, Mr Ring had said there had been “no lock-in” at the pub and that the gardaí investigating had been “professional and polite”.

“There were five of us upstairs in my office, which is completely separate from the bar downstairs which I have no access to, when I answered the door to gardaí,” he said.

“This is my work office and I was there with my business partner and a couple of his colleagues and we were each having a bottle of beer after completing an important business matter.

“We were all two metres apart and what we were drinking did not come from the pub downstairs.

“I think the gardaí are doing a great job in policing the Covid crisis and they were very professional and polite when they entered the premises — I am 100pc behind their efforts. There was no breach of the regulations.”

At the time, gardaí had launched Operation Fanacht to implement the lockdown regulations issued by government to try and prevent the spread of Covid-19. Some 2,500 gardaí were placed on checkpoints countrywide over the Easter weekend to discourage people from travelling. Under the health regulations, gardaí could arrest those who did not comply with orders to return home.

Mr Ring previously served as Lord Mayor of Dublin from June 2018 to June 2019.

It later emerged that he spent €366,000 of taxpayers’ money on hospitality during his year in office.

He spent €28,488 on “beer” in three months and €35,240 on “red and white wine” over 12 months.

The Mansion House began buying in beer after the free beer ran out. Diageo traditionally donates 120 free kegs of Guinness a year to the Mansion House but Mr Ring used up his allocation by March.

Mr Ring said at the time that 40,000 people came through the Mansion House in his tenure. “The Mansion House is the House of the people of Dublin and I wanted as many in there as possible,” he said, adding the costs should be set against the almost €900m costs of running the city.

In addition to the cost of alcohol for the thousands Mr Ring invited to the Mansion House, more than €13,000 was spent on commemorative pens and pencils engraved with his name.

In a radio interview, Mr Ring defended the spending on alcohol during his year in office.

“No one is falling out of the Mansion House, down the steps into Dawson Street in front of the Luas, knocked down by trams,” he said.