The Assistant National Director for Public Health with the Health Service Executive has said an outbreak of salmonella in north Dublin has been isolated to a single producer, who was providing food for a number of parties on the weekend of 13 May.
Dr Kevin Kelleher said this is probably the largest outbreak of salmonella in Ireland in the past ten years and the cause of the problem is believed to have been poultry.
Speaking on RTÉ's Morning Ireland, he said: "We, on average, get somewhere between two and 500 cases of salmonella a year over the last decade.
"This is probably the largest outbreak we've had in that period of time, but then you can understand why that is, because there's been a single event, clearly on that weekend, but there were a large amount of groups involved. As far as we can ascertain, it's poultry."
The Food Safety Authority has named the producer as Flanreil Food Services in O'Dwyer's Pub in Portmarnock.
Dr Kelleher said around 50 people were affected. Some were admitted to hospital, but have since been discharged.
He said that people need to be scrupulous about cleanliness and warned people to be careful that food, in particular mince and poultry, is cooked correctly.
The groups most at risk are the elderly, the young and those with compromised immune systems.
The outbreak came to the attention of the HSE on 18 May.
