Insurance group FBD’s plan to create a smoking area and beer garden at Adair Lane to the rear of the Temple Bar Hotel has hit a snag. Dublin City Council has relinquished all responsibility for the laneway but says FBD must secure the written approval of the owners of 14 to 18 Aston Quay, the former McBirney’s department stores, before it can go ahead with the plan.

Now home to SuperValu and Crunch Fitness, the ground-floor retail units are owned by private clients of Davy Stockbrokers, so they will have to okay the plans. Overhead, there’s a number of apartments that were sold to various private owners by Garrett Kelleher’s Shelbourne Developments, which redeveloped the property. Kelleher still owns the penthouse apartment there, according to its website, which was designed by internationally recognised French interior designer Andrée Putman. The apartment came on the market in April 2007, just before the crash, with a price tag of €4m but has failed to shift since then.