Judge allows family of bankrupt developer €9,000 a month to live on

Christine Connolly

, the wife of discharged bankrupt developer Larry O’Mahony, needs €10,000 a month for family living expenses from about €1 million being kept in frozen accounts, including up to €3,500 to rent a south Dublin home because the family must leave their repossessed Shrewsbury Road home shortly, the

High Court

has heard.

Mr Justice George Birmingham, who was shown brochures of two houses Ms Connolly considers suitable for renting, one on Upper Leeson Street and the second on Serpentine Avenue, Ballsbridge, said they were "desirable" and that he would allow €9,000 monthly living expenses.

The family could live in such properties if they trimmed their outgoings, he said.

Those outgoings include about €1,600 for school fees and extra-curricular activities for the couple’s three children, €165 for monthly golf membership and €820 for car costs.

The family have cut back their expenses and the sums being sought were reasonable, their lawyer Martin Hayden SC argued.

Lifestyle
Ms Connolly was in court yesterday to hear State-owned Irish Bank Resolution Corporation insist her family will have to adjust from the days they lived a "Celtic Tiger" lifestyle. While the relevant law does provide for payment of living expenses to fund the lifestyle to which the affected person was reasonably accustomed, IBRC was conscious, if its claim to €1 million frozen money was upheld, the expenses were being funded by the Irish taxpayer, Cian Ferriter SC said.

IBRC has sued Mr O'Mahony, a former business partner of Priory Hall developer Tom Feely, Ms Connolly and Portal Properties LLC for some €2.5 million over a loan allegedly made to Portal to buy a luxury property in Portugal.

The couple deny any liability to IBRC or that it has any claim over about €1 million, representing net sale proceeds of that property and an adjoining property which Ms Connolly insists is hers.