Dublin City Council has seized unlicensed street furniture from 10 hospitality businesses this year

In the first half of this year, Dublin City Council hit 35 hospitality businesses with notices for unlicensed street furniture outside their premises, including some of the city’s well-known watering holes and eateries. 

Among them, the Button Factory in Temple Bar, Pygmalion on South William Street, and Arthur's Pub on Thomas Street, were warned to remove unlicensed street furniture.

The council told the businesses to remove tables, chairs, barrels, and screen holders – or in some cases to renew the licence for their street furniture. 

Sean McKiernan, the owner of Arthur’s Pub, says they put some barrels outside the pub without seating and didn’t realise that required a licence. “It was to increase the visual profile of the pub,” he says.

There was enough room for people to pass on the wide footpath, he says. “We felt it looked good.”

But once the council wrote to say they should remove the barrels, he did. It wasn’t worth applying for a licence as he wasn’t using the barrels for seating customers, he says. 

Not all businesses heeded warnings, though. The council has seized furniture from outside 10 hospitality businesses so far this year, including Crow Bar in Temple Bar and Brogans on Dame Street.

Councillors say it is their job to protect the public space, hence the regulation.

“We want people to enjoy being outside,” says Green Party Councillor Janet Horner. “But I think there is a free-for-all approach at the moment.”

Many people do like eating outside though, says Adrian Cummins, CEO of the Restaurants Association of Ireland. 

In good weather, customers often ask if they can sit outside, and allowing this creates a pleasant city, he says.“Outdoor dining creates a European-style, continental atmosphere.” 

Each application for street furniture should be assessed on its merits, he says. “Obviously, if you have a narrow path, there needs to be space for a wheelchair to pass.”

Making the space

Independent Councillor Mannix Flynn says he regularly sees older people or people with disabilities forced onto the road. “The streets are choc-a-block with nonsense.”

That’s why it’s important that businesses apply for a licence, says Horner, the Green Party councillor. 

So the council can assess whether the street furniture leaves enough space for people to get past, including those in wheelchairs, she says. 

In some places, even where footpaths are wide, the streams of pedestrians means there isn’t space for furniture, she says. 

“High volume parts of the city, you need multiple people abreast for it to carry on, without interfering with the pedestrian flow,” she says.

Horner says that the licence is a temporary permission too. It doesn’t mean that a business has a permanent right to use that spot for its furniture. 

Flynn says he thinks the licensing system should change. Street furniture should require a normal planning application, he says.

At the moment, the person who wants to apply for a street furniture licence has to erect a sign and advertise the intention in a newspaper. People can weigh in, and the application is then decided by the council. 

The difference, Flynn says, is that street furniture applications are not included on the full planning application lists so people don’t always know about them – which, he says it should be. 

Running off with the tables

In January 2024, Dublin City Council issued a notice to Crow Bar in Temple Bar asking it to remove barrels from the path outside. 

A year later in January 2025, the council staff took away three barrels from outside the Crow Bar in Temple Bar, according to a removal notice. 

To get the furniture back, the owners have to pay a €100 removal fee for each item of street furniture and €35 per week for storage, says the notice. 

In January 2025, the council also issued a notice to the Button Factory, of which Crow Bar is part, saying that it had failed to renew its licence to have tables and chairs outside. 

The Button Factory didn’t respond to email queries about this. 

Many of the pubs and restaurants hit with notices and seizures are located in the inner-city, and especially in the south inner-city – but some suburban businesses were also warned.

Flynn, the independent councillor, says he wants the council to go in even stronger to enforce street furniture licensing in the area he represents, the south inner-city.

Dublin City Council needs to increase enforcement on South William Street, in Temple Bar, on Aungier Street and on Camden Street, among others, says Flynn. “Drury Street is absolute chaos,” he says.

He regularly reports unlicensed street furniture and excessive noise from speakers outside bars, he says. “You have to pro-actively manage the space,” he says. 

The council needs more staff assigned to work on licensing street furniture, says Flynn, and to work outside of normal hours.

Businesses and customers could face other consequences, he said. “If you have an accident, the insurance won’t cover it if it’s outside the designated space.” 

Several businesses didn’t get back to queries before publication, about outdoor furniture and notices. 

But Cummins, of the Restaurants Association of Ireland, says the desire is there among customers for more outdoor dining and seating.

So he’d like to see outdoor dining supported more in those places where it works, he says. 

“We need to put in more infrastructure in my opinion,” he says. “I think we need to relax some of the rules and regulations around it.”

It is currently free for businesses to apply for a licence for street furniture, but they need to pay for each table they put out, says Cummins. 

Also at the moment, businesses pay for the full year but only use the spot for half the year, given weather isn’t great over the winter for serving outdoors, he says. 

So he would like to see a six-month licence option, he says.