Club managers claim fire and safety monitoring procedures are adequate

NIGHT CLUB managers and fire officers have differed with the Consumers Association of Ireland on the levels of safety monitoring carried out in night clubs.

The association called on the fire authorities to combine annual pre licence inspections with unannounced safety checks during opening hours.

Ms Valerie Roe, manageress of Lillie's Bordello in Dublin, said her club was visited by a fire officer "every couple of months". These checks occurred during opening hours and without warning.

Her club, as required by law, kept a "service book" in which the safety cheeks carried out each evening were recorded. This was produced for fire officers on demand.

Ms Roe said that, despite complaints from people refused entry when the club is full, Lillie's Bordello turns away potential customers when it reaches its capacity of "between 450 and 500".

Ms Roe, who previously worked in four other Dublin night clubs, said she believed Dublin clubs were subject to satisfactory controls. "No one has forgotten the Stardust. The fire officers often mention it. They know the implications of a fire in a night club and what can happen."

Ms Martina Keenan, of Club M in Temple Bar, Dublin, said fire officers visited the club "about once a month". The club was anxious to ensure everything was as it should be, since a fire officer could "shut you down and empty out the place just like that".

"I imagine it would be very difficult, especially since the Stardust, to run an establishment with less than adequate safety standards", she added.

Mr Denis Crowley, of Cubans night club in Cork, said that there were five exit doors in his club, which had a capacity of 600. The emergency escape mechanism was closely monitored and the club had "limiters" on its amplifiers which reduced the volume of sound if DJs tried to raise it too high. "It's the DJs that always want to up the volume", he said. "The limiters embarrass them and so they show restraint."

Asked about the assertion by the Consumers' Association that drugs were being taken in the toilets of some night clubs, Mr Crowley said: "That's not a problem here. A lot of our customers are guards."

Mr Joe Gannon, executive fire prevention officer with Dublin Corporation, said that ongoing unannounced checks were carried on to such an extent that nightclub owners complained about them. Special checks were conducted on occasions such as All Ireland nights and the night after publication of the Leaving Certificate results.

Mr Gannon emphasised that fire officers could not order premises to close because of overcrowding. "They can contact a senior officer, who must then find a friendly justice at 2 am. to issue an order, and we have never found one of those. The gardai have the authority, under the Licensing Act, to empty an overcrowded premises. Fire officers shouldn't do it. It's high risk stuff. It's illegal.

A spokesman for the Department of the Environment said he could not see the point of enacting a single, all encompassing piece of legislation to cover safety in nightclubs and other places of assembly, as has been called for by the Consumers' Association.