County Meath hospital coffee shop shut down after live rat falls from ledge

A County Meath hospital coffee shop was shut down after a live rat fell from an overhead ledge

A County Meath hospital coffee shop was forced to close after a live rat fell from an overhead ledge.

Six dead rodents stuck to a sticky tape trap were also found in the coffee shop at Our Lady's Hospital in Navan.

An article in the Irish Times revealed that privately operated CC's Coffee Dock was ordered to close by the Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI).

The coffee shop was shut from Monday 30 March until Saturday, 4 April, when the closure order was lifted.

A HSE spokeswoman said: "Hospital management are satisfied that the rodent issue in the Coffee Dock has been addressed."

Documents released by the FSAI under a Freedom of Information (FOI) request reveal the extent of the rat problem in and around the coffee outlet.

A dead rat was found in bin in CC's Coffee Dock on 23 March and the following Friday staff reported: "A live rat fell from top ledge of overhead extraction ducting onto floor of CC's Coffee Dock".

A statement on 30 March records a number of dead rodents (five or six) found on sticky trap by staff near the coffee shop on the same day.

Cllr Wayne Forde, a member of the HSE Dublin North East Regional Health Forum, blamed a derelict site adjacent to the hospital, and not the coffee shop, as the source of the rats.