Judge ‘reluctantly’ extends McInerney court protection

A JUDGE yesterday extended High Court protection for the McInerney construction group until December 3.

Mr Justice Frank Clarke said his decision to extend the period of examinership for five McInerney companies was done with “considerable reluctance” as he had not concluded, at this stage, there was no realistic chance of the examiner coming up with a survival scheme which could succeed. However, it might be possible that the examiner William O’Riordan could come up with a better scheme if examinership was extended.

The court has heard that valuations on property owned by the group is now estimated to be worth between €25 million and €30m as against a €194m figure put on it last year.