A garda investigation is continuing into a claim by a Dublin businessman that a listening device was found at his Baggot Street office, the High Court heard yesterday.
Mr Padraig Hanley said the device was found earlier this year following a series of events involving himself, Mr Eugene Bellew, who is a director of a company which is seeking to operate a bar from a premises above Mr Hanley's basement restaurant, Mocha Monday, at Upper Baggot Street, and others. Mr Bellew has denied any involvement in the placing of the device.
Mr Hanley referred to the discovery of the listening device while giving evidence in a continuing hearing before the President of the High Court, Mr Justice Finnegan, of an application by Whiteside Inn Limited for an order to operate a licensed premises at Upper Baggot Street. Mr Bellew and Mr Fred Murphy are directors of Whiteside.
The application is being opposed by Mr Michael and Mr Frank Quinn, who operate four pubs in the Baggot Street area and by Mr Hugh Courtenay, who operates Smyth's bar, also in the Baggot Street area.
Mr Justice Finnegan has refused to allow Mr Hanley lodge an objection as Mr Hanley had not objected in earlier proceedings.
The court has been told by Ms Constance Cassidy SC, with Mr James Connolly SC, for Whiteside, that the Whiteside premises is one of the smallest bars on Baggot Street and accounts for some 3 per cent of the total customer capacity of bars in the Baggot Street area.
Yesterday, Mr Hanley said he held a lease since 1999 for the basement premises at Upper Baggot Street and operated a restaurant from there. The premises above him had been a butcher's shop. He heard about May 2000 that the lease for the butcher shop was on the market.
He was interested in acquiring it but was later told that Mr Bellew and Mr Murphy had acquired it through their company, Whiteside. Mr Hanley said he went away for a weekend in July 2000 and came back to learn a deal had been done for the lease. He was surprised and said so to the butcher involved. He had not objected when applications were made for planning permission for a pub above his premises, he said.
Building works later commenced in the premises above him and this had resulted in significant disruption to his restaurant business. This eventually led to his taking High Court proceedings and he had secured orders stopping the works. Those proceedings were resolved and he had received an amount in compensation for inconvenience and damage to his business. He later had exchanges with Mr Bellew about delays in receiving the compensation.
The hearing continues today.