The High Court has ruled that four pub owners are entitled to compensation from their insurer FBD for the disruption their businesses suffered due to COVID-19.

The judge found that a policy sold by FBD covered losses the pubs sustained by having to close.

FBD had refused to provide policyholders with cover after the first closures in March last year.

However, the judge said that cover is not lost if the closure is prompted by nationwide outbreaks of a disease, provided that there is an outbreak within a 25-mile radius of the premises and that the outbreak is one of the causes of the closure.

To discuss the landmark decision we were joined by Noel Anderson, Managing Director of the Lemon & Duke pub in Dublin, and Sinn Féin spokesperson on finance Pearse Doherty.