The Commissioners for Public Works (CPW) yesterday asked the High Court to lift restrictions placed on building works at a site adjoining a south Dublin restaurant.
However, Mr Justice Thomas Smyth said his order restraining building works during key dining hours beside the Rubicon restaurant on Merrion Row should remain in place pending the outcome of full legal proceedings to be heard on Tuesday next.
Last month, Ann Galligan, the owner of the Rubicon restaurant at No 6 Merrion Row, was granted an order restraining the CPW and its building contractors from carrying out building works between noon and 3pm and from 6pm onwards at Nos 7/9 Merrion Row, Dublin 2.
Ms Galligan, of Grovedale, Ballycorus Road, Kilternan, Co Dublin, had brought the proceedings against the CPW and McCallen Brothers Limited of Omagh Road, Carrickmore, Co Tyrone, arising from demolition and building works carried out at Nos 7/9 Merrion Row in order to construct a six-storey office building.
Work on the site had begun in April last.
In court yesterday, senior counsel James Connolly, for the CPW, asked that restrictions be lifted on the carrying out of work on the site.
However, Mr Justice Smyth said he would continue the order and adjourned the case to next Tuesday.
In an affidavit to the court last month, Ms Galligan said she has operated the Rubicon restaurant since 1986 and that, from September last, she had become "seriously concerned with the extent and the persistence of noise and vibrations" coming from numbers 7 to 9 Merrion Row.
Her concern was prompted by an unusual number of customer cancellations and complaints which she believed were attributable to the noise of the building works, she said.