A man aged in his 20s is due in court this morning charged in relation to the false imprisonment of the former Kilkenny hurler Adrian Ronan and his family in November 2009.
The man who was arrested in north Dublin earlier today is to appear at Kilkenny District Court.
Mr Ronan, an employee of the Bank of Ireland in Kilkenny city, was falsely imprisoned along with his wife and three children on the morning of November 3rd 2009.
An armed gang broke into Mr Ronan's home at Michael's Church, Ballycallan, Co Kilkenny, at about 6.15am on the day of the incident and held his family at gunpoint as part of an attempt to extort €3 million from the Bank of Ireland.
Ms Ronan was taken away and left with instructions to go to work as normal at 9am in the Parliament Street branch of the Bank of Ireland in Kilkenny city. He was told his wife would only be released unharmed if he took €3 million from the branch. The gang gave him a phone saying they would ring him later in the morning and direct him where to drop the money off for collection.
The three Ronan children were asleep when the raiders broke into their house. Mr Ronan took them in to work with him.
When the gang members rang Mr Ronan just before noon, he told them he was only able to get €200,000 because of the time-lock systems on the safe. They demanded he get more money.
Just after 1pm the gang rang him back and told him to put whatever money he had in a bag and to go to his car parked close by and await further instruction via the mobile phone. However, he never heard from the gang again.
The Bank of Ireland had told gardaí what was happening and a major Garda operation was put in place.
Gardaí believe the gang may have become nervous over the course of the protracted robbery attempt and simply decided to abandon the heist.
Ms Ronan was being held at an unattended weather station on the Granges Road, close to St Luke's Hospital in Kilkenny city. The man holding her discharged one shot during her ordeal, although not at her. He left her there in the early afternoon and she managed to make her way outside. She was spotted by gardaí just after 2pm and reunited with her husband and children a short time later.
A number of other people have been arrested in connection with the attempted robbery with ten individuals questioned about the incident following a series of raids in May 2010.