If you thought that the horse meat scandal would be bad news for the vendors who’ve always championed the controversial meat then you’d be wrong because Dublin foodies are lapping it up.

Pat Hyland, a chef who has a stall Paddy Jack at Dublin’s Meeting House Square in Temple Bar has been selling horse meat burgers and baguettes for the last four years and says he’s noticed a huge increase in sales in the last three weeks.

Originally from Co. Laois, Pat has been running his stall for 18 years and decided to introduce horse meat a couple of years ago after tasting it in Italy.

His baguettes sell for €6.50 and fillet steaks for €15 a kilo, compared to beef fillet steaks which sell for €35 a kilo.

The market at Dublin's Meeting House Square in Temple Bar is popular with foodies

Speaking to the Irish Times, Hyland says that he’s now worried that his popular fare will run out and that he’ll be unable to cater to his customers in the wake of the horsemeat scandal.

“The level of regulation has always been ridiculous but with horse now it’s even worse,” he says.

“I have enough horse meat to last until mid-March. I don’t know what I’ll do after that if I can’t get a butcher to handle it. I am worried. There could be a healthy market for horse meat in this country if it was marketed properly. It tastes good, it’s healthy and good value, and there are good people in the meat industry who would like to deal with it.”

Cheap and tasty... maybe all those crafty meat producers were onto something after all.