Financial collapse of prison beef supplier

PRISONERS in a State jail will not go hungry due to the financial collapse of its major raw beef supplier.

The High Court yesterday approved a scheme ofarrangement under the Companies Act which ensures the continuance as a going concern of Fiesta Fine Foods Ltd, Clonminam Business Park, Portlaoise.

The Midlands Prison, Portlaoise, which takes its raw beef supplies from Fiesta Fine Foods, is one of the company’s major customers.

Bernard Dunleavy, counsel for the official examiner Tom Moore of Ormsby & Rhodes, chartered accountants, told the court the scheme resulted in unsecured creditors of Fiesta Fine Foods getting only 8.4c in the euro payments on what they were owed.

Mr Dunleavy, who appeared with solicitors Matheson Ormsby Prentice, told Mr Justice Garrett Sheehan that Mr Moore had been appointed in June last when debts of Fiesta Fine Foods totalled almost €550,000. The examiner had secured a substantial input from an investor who has taken over the company. Former director Laurence Phillips, who had loaned the company €56,900, would receive 5c in the euro.

Mr Justice Sheehan approved the scheme effective from yesterday.