A Co Cork chef arrested as part of a Garda investigation into IRA money laundering had his bail conditions varied by the Special Criminal Court in Dublin yesterday to allow him to visit his parents.
Don Bullman (30), of Leghanamore, Wilton, Co Cork, was charged with membership of an illegal organisation styling itself the Irish Republican Army, otherwise Óglaigh na hÉireann, otherwise the IRA on February 16th.
Mr Bullman was granted bail on his own bond of €500, an independent surety of €30,000, ordered to report daily to Togher Garda station in Co Cork, to surrender his passport, and not to travel outside Co Cork.
The court also ordered him not to associate with anyone convicted of subversive crime or to associate with four named individuals - Conor McLaughlin, Christopher McElhinney, Tom Hanlon and George Hegarty.
Yesterday Mr Bullman's counsel Anne Rowland applied to have his bail conditions varied to allow him to visit his parents at Naas, Co Kildare, and to stay overnight.
Mr Justice Richard Johnson, presiding, said the court would vary the bail on condition that Mr Bullman give the gardaí 24 hours' notice before he left Co Cork.
Last February Det Supt Diarmuid O'Sullivan objected to bail for Mr Bullman, saying he believed he would interfere with evidence if granted bail. He said gardaí had found a bag containing a Daz box with over €94,000 inside when Mr Bullman was arrested at Heuston Station, Dublin.
The Det Supt said Mr Bullman was "a central individual" to the activities of the IRA prior to February 16th and that activity was "a money laundering operation for the IRA, in which he is central". The detective said: "I have an apprehension he will continue to launder money for an unlawful organisation, the IRA."
Mr Bullman said: "I am not a member of any unlawful organisation and never was." He denied he was in the IRA and agreed to give any undertaking sought by the court.