This article is from page 36 of the 2009-11-24 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 36 JPG
A SETTLEMENT which will see Clare County Council and the Rev- enue Commissioners write off 85 per cent of a hotel groups debts has come under fire.
Last week, the High Court ap- proved an Examinership deal which will save the Lynch Hotel group from liquidation and secure more than 500 jobs. The deal included preferential creditors being paid 15 cent in the euro on what the group owed while other creditors will get 10 cent.
Among the largest preferential creditors are the Revenue Commis- sioners, who had an outstanding bill of €1.2 million for the Clare-based group and Clare County Council, which was owed €113,071 when the examinership process began.
Unsecured creditors were owed a total of €2.8 million before the Ex- aminer stepped in.
But while the securing of the future of the group – which owns the West County in Ennis, the Clare Inn in Dromoland and runs the Ocean Cove hotel in Kilkee seasonally – was gen-
erally welcomed, their have been concerns raised.
Responding to the council and rev- enue write-off, Ennis hotelier Allen Flynn, who is one of the owners of the Old Ground and the Imperial Hotel in Cork, said the two bodies ‘should never be seen to allow unfair competition take place. The flexibil- ity they showed to the Lynch Group should, and must, apply to all busi- eA ohn
The Flynn Group owns hotels in Cork, Dungarven, Kilkenny and En- nis and Allen Flynn said that a “level
playing pitch must apply and if other hotels are struggling – and the hotel industry is going through its worst ever crisis – then the Revenue and local authorities should write off the debts of other hotels which are strug- gling…the Revenue can’t enter into special arrangements with one hotel group and not apply the same rules to other hotels.”
He predicted that the Examiner’s deal will present problems for the local authority and Revenue when they come to collect debts from other businesses, if the same flexibility is
not shown.
He said that he is “quite happy to see the Lynch Group survive. The West County has been very good for the town in the many conferences it brings and the economic benefits that result. My biggest concern is govern- ment bodies doing deals with one business and not applying the same flexibility to all businesses.”
The Clare hoteliers comments came after the chair of the Shannon branch of the Irish Hotels Federation also expressed concerns about the fall-out of the examinership.