Taggart Holdings goes bust

One of Ireland’s largest building companies has gone bust, it was announced today.

Belfast-based Taggart Holdings confirmed that an administrator had been appointed in respect of its operations in Ireland, Britain, the North.

Plans to build thousands of homes worth hundreds of millions of pounds on more than 25 sites – many in the greater Dublin area and Hartlepool in the north-east of England – have had to be abandoned.

The firm’s directors John and Michael Taggart said the development of schemes in Luxembourg as well as Mullingar and Navan in the Irish Republic would continue.

The firm, which employed more than 150 people 18 months ago, has just 15 on its books.

Michael Taggart described the appointment of an administrator at the request of the Ulster Bank and Bank of Ireland as “deeply regrettable” and a sign of the seriousness of the crisis now facing the construction and property sectors.