Fingal council to take part in contested application to wind up plastics recycling firm

Fingal County Council can take part in a contested application to wind up a plastics recycling firm, a High Court judge has ruled.

Two creditors of Cloughwater Plastics Ireland Limited, which is a joint venture between the Netherlands-based Van Werven Group and the Northern Ireland-based Cloughwater Enterprises Limited, have previously asked the High Court for orders to wind up the company.

The creditors – two entities within the Van Werven group – have sought the orders over concerns about the alleged operation of the company, which they claim is insolvent and no longer able to pay its debts as they fall due.

The application is contested, and lawyers for Shane Woods, who the court heard is a director of Cloughwater Enterprises, from Ballymena, Co Antrim, and the managing director of Cloughwater Plastics, reject claims that the company is insolvent.

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Arising out of the application, Aidan Redmond SC, for Mr Woods, told the court last week that it should not appoint the proposed liquidators and described the matter as being a shareholders’ dispute.

The case was briefly mentioned before the High Court on Wednesday when Lydia Bunni BL, for Fingal County Council, asked Ms Justice Eileen Roberts for permission to file a sworn statement in the proceedings. Only the council was represented in court during the application.

Fingal County Council had issued the company with a Waste Facility Permit in respect of its operations at Rosemount Park, Ballycoolin, Dublin.

Counsel said her client only recently found out about the action and wishes to raise certain issues when the application to have the firm wound up returns to court later this week.

Ms Justice Roberts was satisfied to allow the council to file a sworn statement and directed that it be sent to the other parties in the proceedings.

The company, which has 35 employees, was set up for the recycling at its west Dublin facility of used mixed rigid plastics into raw materials for reuse in the plastics industry.

The two creditors seeking the winding-up orders are Kunststof Recycling Van Werven BV, a related company that says it is owed over €1.86 million by the Irish company, and Van Werven Plastic Recycling Holding BV, which is a shareholder in Cloughwater Plastics and claims it is owed €477,000.

Represented by Lyndon MacCann SC, the Dutch entities say they have lost confidence in their Northern partner to run Cloughwater Plastics. It is in the best interests that he no longer remains in the stewardship of the company, they say.

The creditors want insolvency experts Ken Fennell and Andrew O’Leary, of Interpath Ireland, to be appointed as joint provisional liquidators to help secure and manage the firm’s affairs and assets.

Revenue and Repak are among the notice parties to the proceedings.

The claims are denied, and the matter will return before the High Court on Friday.