Fianna Fáil Senator Eddie Bohan is named in numerous official records as the owner of a 50 per cent stake in one of Dublin's best-known pubs, The Oval, on Middle Abbey Street, but never mentioned any connection with the business in his statutory filings to the Oireachtas, writes Arthur Beesley, Senior Business Correspondent
Senator Bohan, an auctioneer who has long-standing links with the licensed trade, was a prominent opponent of the smoking ban in pubs in 2003 and he co-sponsored a motion before the Fianna Fáil parliamentary party that urged the Government to review the initiative.
He said he never held shares in a company called Alazwar Ltd, which owns the pub, even though his name, address, date of birth and signature appear on annual returns and audited accounts filed in the Companies Office.
He said the shares were held by his son, Eddie jnr, and said his own signature appeared on annual returns for the company because he had power of attorney for his son.
"I would have signed documents on Eddie's behalf because I have power of attorney for him and I have given him power of attorney," he said.
The Senator said that his personal details, including his date of birth, were erroneously filed when his son became involved with the business in 1994 and that such errors were replicated for years without correction. He did not know who could have made such errors.
A landmark pub for generations, The Oval features in James Joyce's Ulysses. The other half of the Alazwar business is owned by the well-known publican Charlie Chawke, who had a lower leg amputated in 2003 after he was shot by thieves outside one of his southside pubs, the Goat Grill.
Mr Chawke did not return calls yesterday or on Thursday.
A Senator since 1987, Mr Bohan is a former president of the Vintners' Federation of Ireland.
He is also a former chairman of the vintners' body in Dublin which sponsors his nomination to the industrial and commercial panel in the Seanad. "I have no personal interest, good bad or indifferent in that company and I can prove it," he said.
In interviews yesterday and on Thursday, he said he had been a director of the company - "in the early years certainly" - but resigned that position some time in the last two years when he suffered a serious illness.
He said then that he should have informed the Companies Office of this change but believed he had a valid explanation for not doing so due to his illness.
He appeared to contradict such assertions later yesterday when it was pointed out that he never mentioned a directorship in Alazwar in any of his 11 declarations of interest to the Oireachtas from 1995 up to the most recent in 2005.
"If it's not down, I certainly wasn't a director," he said.