Renowned Irish multi-millionaire JP McManus is suing Facebook for allegedly failing to remove three fake profile pages claiming to be him.

Coincidentally, he is suing the same week that Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg is in Ireland on a business trip.

At a preliminary hearing on Friday, Paul Gallagher SC, for McManus, said that his client's representatives had asked the social networking giant to to take down the profiles, but the pages, which stated they were "JP McManus" and contained photos of him, remained on the site.

The Irish Independent reported that they contacted Facebook, which immediately took down one of the profiles, promising that the other profiles would also be removed.

"Our terms of service are unique in that you have to be who you say you are -- we're among the best on the web for that," said a spokesperson for the networking website. The spokesperson could not account for why the profiles were not removed.

Lawyers for the 60-year-old multi-millionaire from Limerick, were granted permission by the High Court to bring proceedings against Facebook Ireland for alleged breaches of privacy and data protection.

McManus, who is known for his privacy, is also seeking declarations that Facebook's alleged failure to remove the accounts is an unlawful breach of his constitutional rights. He is also seeking damages for defamation, malicious falsehood, fraudulent misrepresentation and negligence.