British chain pub giant Wetherspoons could be set to take over four of Dublin’s best known pubs.

The Sunday Independent reports that Wetherspoons is taking an active interest in the Capital Bars Group, a group of pubs which entered a mixed examinership and receivership process in 2009. The group of pubs can be bought for €12m but the venues are also for sale individually.

The four pubs attracting the interest of Wetherspoons are the large Dawson street pub Cafe En Seine, the South Great George’s Street bars The George and The Dragon, and Lower Mount Street nightclub Howl at the Moon.

Wetherspoons are reported to be interested in opening 30 pubs in the Republic of Ireland over the coming years and will make its first foray into the Irish market next month with the opening of a pub in Blackrock on July 7.

More than 1,300 pubs closed in Ireland last year and the relatively low price of venues in Ireland makes expansion here an attractive proposition for the British chain.