O’Reilly loses bid to defer €22.6m ruling

Former billionaire Anthony O’Reilly lost a court bid to postpone the registration and execution of a €22.6m judgment against him for another six months.

The 78-year-old businessman has other borrowings of €195m and his lawyers had claimed the consequences of the Commercial Court refusing the six-month stay on registration and execution of the judgment were “potentially enormous”.

Mr Justice Peter Kelly said that “ample” opportunity had been given to Mr O’Reilly and two companies of his to pay debts of €22.6m and €23m respectively to Allied Irish Banks and they were not entitled to further forbearance from the court.