Paddywagon bus tours continue following €3,000 fine and court case loss

A tour operator hit with a legal bill of over €5,000 earlier this week for running coach trips to the Cliffs of Moher without the necessary documentation is continuing to sell packages to the popular tourist attraction despite the rap across its knuckles.Paddywagon was fined €3,000 and told to pay costs of €2,700 at Ennis District Court on Monday after it pleaded guilty to charges connected with ferrying people to and from the cliffs without a licence issued by the public transport watchdog.Less than 24 hours after the court case went against it, the tour operator was still selling trips to the cliffs, which attract more than 1.5 million visitors annually making them the most popular tourist attraction in the State.It was the most prominent tour listed on the Paddywagon website, with the company offering trips to the cliffs from Dublin, Cork and Limerick with tickets costing between €64 and €75.READ MORETrips for smaller groups from Dublin city were priced at €129 with would-be travellers warned that they were popular and “likely to sell out” soon.Not only were trips still on the table despite the legal bill that Paddywagon was left with for selling them earlier this year, the operator was encouraging people to sign up with the promise of discounts of more than 10 per cent to anyone who made a booking before midnight on Tuesday. When The Irish Times went through the booking process, it was quoted a price of €65.60 for a tour leaving from Dublin’s O’Connell Street at 7.45am on Wednesday.The case against the tour operator was taken by the National Transport Authority (NTA) and came after two of its agents posing as tourists boarded a Paddywagon service bound for Clare outside the Merrion Hotel in Dublin in April.The court was told of aggravating factors including a conviction for the same offence 12 months previously and the fact that 24 hours before the court hearing the Paddywagon website was still advertising trips to the Cliffs of Moher.The NTA also said it had issued 15 warning letters to Paddywagon over the continuation of the service.Paddywagon’s legal representative told the court that the tour operator admitted the offence and said its application for the service was with the NTA but its licence application had yet to be approved. The Irish Times has contacted Paddywagon for comment.