€2.6m for directors of Haulbowline clean-up firm ‘an error’

Some €2.6m should not have been paid to two directors of a company sub-contracted to carry out part of a €30m clean-up of the former Irish Steel site in Haulbowline, Cork, it has been claimed in the High Court.

The effect of the payments to Stephen Griffin and David Ronan, of CTO Greenclean Environmental Solutions, Sarsfield Road, Wilton, Cork, was to render the company insolvent and to deprive its creditors of their entitlements, CTO creditor Louis J O’Regan Ltd, of Staffordshire, England, along with CTO liquidator, Myles Kirby, have claimed.

Mr Justice Robert Haughton ordered Mr Kirby be joined as a co-applicant in a case by O’Regan, in which it seeks payment of €2.6m from the directors. Mr Kirby argued he was in the best position to pursue the monies and to act on behalf of all the company’s creditors.