Permanent administrators appointed to Quinn Insurance

The High Court has this afternoon appointed permanent administrators to take over the running of Quinn Insurance.

The Quinn Group decided not to challenge the application before a special sitting of the High Court today.

The company went into administration two weeks ago regarding serious concerns by the Financial Regulator about a breach of solvency rules.

In a brief hearing, counsel for the Financial Regulator informed the president of the High Court that there had been considerable progress since last Monday's court sitting, with the Quinn Group no longer opposing the petition to appoint joint administrators.

Bernard Dunleavy for the administrators drew to the court's attention to the fact that that their role and duty was to put Quinn Insurance on a sound commercial and financial footing.

It is understood that staff have been briefed on the move during meetings earlier today.

Yesterday, regulator Matthew Elderfield told an Oireachtas Committee that there had been “serious and persistent breaches” of solvency rules at Quinn Insurance and he felt the appointment of permanent administrators was the best option for the 1.3 million policyholders.

The sudden decision by Quinn to give up the fight against administration came less than 24 hours after regulator Matthew Elderfield said he would lift the sanction if Quinn could come up with the money.

The group had claimed it only needed €150m to get back to required solvency levels to cover an influx of claims.

Quinn Insurance employs 2,800 workers, while the wider group has about another 2,700 in the multinational’s cement, quarry, glass and property businesses.

Staff, who staged a series of rallies since the regulator moved in two weeks ago, claimed after the court hearing that they were in favour of administration.

"We believe that, for all of us as employees, it is vitally important that we give our full support to the administrative process in order that the business and jobs at Quinn remain viable," they said.

"We believe the immediate concern for the administrator is to impress on the regulator the importance of the Northern Ireland and UK business.

"Quinn Employees believe the regulator will be totally unencumbered in making his decision to remove the restriction on trading in NI/UK once full administration is confirmed and the NI/UK business plan submitted to the regulator is reviewed.

"Therefore we feel the onus will be firmly with the regulator to lift the restriction and allow us to write new business in NI/UK markets once more. We would be appealing for that decision to be made urgently following the High Court decision on today."

The regulator's move has stopped the firm writing new business in the UK but Mr Elderfield insisted the 1.3 million policy holders would not be disrupted in any way.

Employees have also claimed the sanction was also losing the business €1.5m every day.

A demonstration by hundreds of staff at the regulator’s offices in central Dublin tomorrow has been cancelled.

A representative of the workers revealed that, instead, a petition with 15,000 signatures would be handed in to Mr Elderfield’s office along with an invitation to meet staff to discuss the status of a business plan to reopen the UK business.

"A petition supporting the Quinn Employees has been active since Thursday April 1 and we have been inundated with signatures both online and at each of our rallies, tallying over 15,000 signatures," said an employee statement.

"We would like to share with the Regulator the support the public has shown to Quinn employees. A delegation of employees will present the petition to the Regulator’s Office tomorrow at noon.

"We are inviting Mr Elderfield to receive this petition document and to meet with some employees to discuss the current status of the submitted NI/UK business plan and to establish his timeline to make a decision on his conclusions."

The regulator later issued a statement insisting both his office and Quinn believed the move was in the best interests of policyholders.

“QIL (Quinn Insurance Ltd) remains able to pay claims and renew policies in the normal way in the Republic of Ireland and continues to settle claims in the UK,” the body said in a statement.

“The Financial Regulator acts at all times in the best interests of policyholders and in the interests of the orderly regulation of the insurance market.”

The regulator said the administrator’s appointment best serves the proper and orderly regulation of Quinn and the wider insurance market.

It said investigations were continuing into guarantees offered by Quinn Insurance on the group’s wider debts – the company owes €1.2bn and the family €2.8bn.