A High Court judge will decide if a company that lost out on a mobile phone licence in 1996 can sue Denis O’Brien, Michael Lowry and the Irish State using money from a British litigation funder.

An ancient law that was dismissed as obsolete in Britain in 1967 was retained by the Irish Government in 2007 and bars a funding arrangement in a legal claim against Denis O’Brien, Michael Lowry and the State, the High Court heard yesterday.