High Court approves costs for Quinn administrators

The High Court has approved the costs to date incurred by the two joint administrators appointed the to run the Quinn Insurance group.

Michael McAteer and Paul McCann of Grant Thornton, who were appointed by the Financial Regulator last March, sought the approval of the costs of some €565,000 for their work between March 30 2010 and April 30 2010 and want liberty to invoice the company monthly up to the end of July in respect of their remuneration for sums not exceeding €1.8m.

In a report furnished to the court last month the administrators want to pay their solicitors some €120,000 for work between March 30 and April 30 last and liberty to pay further legal costs.

They were seeking court approval to pay Hume Brophy PR Consultants some €50,000 for work carried out between March 30 and April 30 last, plus approval to pay the firm €10,000 per month for work from May to July 2010.

Today the President of the High Court Mr Justice Nicholas Kearns approved the administrators own costs to date, plus legal and public relations costs incurred as independent professionals had indicated to the court that the costs were "fair and reasonable."

While the Judge said he was prepared to approve fees incurred by the administrators to date, at this stage Mr Justice Kearns said that he was not going to approve any costs going forward that might be incurred by the joint administrators.

The Judge, who said that he did not see the need for ongoing public relations services, said that any application by the administrators to approve costs incurred after yesterday should be made to the court at a later stage.

The Judge had previously requested independent material on which he could assess the level of costs sought. The court received affidavits from professionals Mr Bernard Somers, an experienced insolvency practitioner and Ms Ita Gibney of Gibney Communications who expressed out their views on the costs of such work.

Mr Bernard Dunleavy for the joint administrators said that Mr Somers had indicated that both the administrator's and the solicitors fees had charged "standard hourly rates" to deal with what where a wide range of broad issues following their appointment to Quinn insurance.

Counsel said that Ms Gibney stated in her affidavit that pr costs were on the lower side of the market standard given the high-profile nature of the work they undertook on behalf of the administrators.

The Court also agreed to the joint administrators application to have part of yesterday's hearing held in camera, due to the commercial sensitive nature of material which counsel argued may have implications for the proposed sale of the group.

Counsel said that it wished to address in closed court issues that might arise out of tender for the services of merchant and investments bankers to advise the administrators as they look to sell the group.

Such issues counsel said needed to be addressed an "a frank and candid manner" and to have them aired in open court it was argued would not be in the interests of the Quinn groups policy holders and employees.

The President is due to resume hearing the matter after lunch.