Accountant has €5m written off in exchange for payment of €15,000 to creditors

A self-employed accountant has had over €5 million in debt written off in exchange for a payment of about €15,000 to creditors.

The arrangement for 51-year-old Brian Carrig, from Ashfield, Drogheda, Co Louth, was approved by the High Court on Monday.

Mr Justice Alexander Owens heard the accountant sought the debt settlement arrangement after a Dublin pub business he was involved in got into financial difficulties.

Keith Farry, representing personal insolvency practitioner Eugene McDarby, told the court the arrangement would last six months and return Mr Carrig to solvency. Creditors, which include Everyday Finance, Cabot Finance and a trade creditor, would receive 0.32 per cent of what they are owed, he said.

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The arrangement is to be funded with a lump payment of €20,000 (including €5,000 to the insolvency practitioner), which his family has contributed to, the court heard.

Mr Carrig will also be forfeiting a lease for the premises where the pub business had operated from, counsel added.

Counsel said none of Mr Carrig’s creditors had voted to accept or reject the proposed debt settlement arrangement so there was nothing to prevent its approval.

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In a separate case, the judge approved a debt settlement arrangement allowing a former building contractor to write off more than €1.3 million in debt for a payment of approximately €20,000.

Mr Farry, for insolvency practitioner Nicholas O’Dwyer, said debtor David Hoban, of Captain’s Road, Crumlin, Dublin 12, ran a building company that went into liquidation due to the pandemic. This left Mr Hoban (56) in financial difficulties.

Mr Hoban, who is currently unemployed and has no income source, owed amounts to Cabot Finance, Start Mortgages, Pepper Finance Corporation and Permanent TSB, counsel said.

The debt settlement arrangement is to be paid over a period of 60 months and is aimed at returning Mr Hoban to solvency.

Counsel said 81 per cent of Mr Hoban’s creditors voted to accept the arrangement, with only Pepper voting against.

In a third case to come before the court on Monday, Mr Justice Owens approved an arrangement allowing a company’s IT director to write off €2.2 million of debt for a payment of some €70,000 to his unsecured creditors.

The debt settlement arrangement was sought by 47-year-old Daniel Desmond, from Drynam Hall, Swords, Dublin, who is married with two dependent children.

His creditors include Pepper Finance and AIB bank.

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The lump sum debt settlement, aimed at returning him to solvency, will be paid over a year to the creditors and will cover the insolvency practitioner’s costs.

Mr Farry, for Mr Desmond’s insolvency practitioner John McCormack, said the applicant got into financial difficulties over repayments on loans after he spent 12 months out of work.

Counsel told the court Mr Desmond’s creditors will do better under the debt settlement arrangement than if he was adjudicated a bankrupt.

In this case, counsel said, all of the creditors voted in favour of the arrangement.