DUNLIX INVESTMENTS (Ireland) Ltd, a Dublin-based company with property in Dublin and Co Tipperary, saw accumulated losses jump to €13.12 million from €7 million in the year to the end of August 2009, according to abridged accounts just filed.
Stock held by the company was €21.8 million at year’s end, compared with €25.8 million the previous year. Creditors at year’s end were €37.4 million, roughly the same amount as that owed at the end of the previous year.
The company is owned by Seán Devine and Pat Blee, both of Strabane, Co Tyrone.
Mr Devine is a director of a number of companies, including GDLC Business Consultants Ltd, where his partners include politician Michael Lowry, and Peter Cassidy of Vevay Road, Bray, and Dermot Gaskin of Malahide, Co Dublin.
Filings in the Companies Registration Office show Dunlix has registered 11 mortgages in the period since 2005, many of them on portfolios of land in Co Tipperary.
The company also owns land opposite the Ikea outlet north of Ballymun, Dublin, that is on the route of the proposed metro from the city centre.
In 2008, Pierce and Associates Architects wrote to An Bord Pleanála in relation to a site owned by Dunlix and concerning the proposal to site a metro stop on the land owned by Dunlix.
In the submission, the firm said the Dunlix site “offers the opportunity to develop a precinct that is focused on public transport, is pedestrian- and cycle-friendly, and is the key site which will be the focal point for the future development of the Northwood/North Ballymun area”.
An Bord Pleanála is expected to issue a railway order in the coming months that will let work on the metro project proceed.
Mr Devine’s group has been building residential property in Northern Ireland for two decades. Its website says it is also extending into commercial and other developments with its sister group, Dunlix Investments.
The accounts for Dunlix Investments Ireland show it was owed €1.6 million from Dunlix Investments (UK), which was owned by the same shareholders.
Mr Devine was not available for comment when his offices in Strabane were contacted yesterday.
GDLC was established last year, but Mr Lowry would not say what it was set up to do.
He said it might not go into business at all. “It’s a business consultancy thing,” he said.
The company was set up to “carry on the provision of business consultancy, public relations, recruitment advisory and commodity broker services”, according to the opening paragraph of its articles of association.
They also refer to the carrying on of any business, including the purchase of property and the construction of related infrastructure.
Mr Devine was formerly a business partner of Omagh businessman Kevin Phelan, who has featured in the proceedings of the Moriarty tribunal.
They were both directors of a Bolton company called Omega Property Development Ltd.
The third director of the company was a John Eastham.
The company, which was owned by Mr Devine and a company called Lonnar in the Isle of Man, was incorporated in 2003 and dissolved in August 2008.
Mr Phelan was involved with land deals in England concerning Mr Lowry.
He refused to give evidence to the tribunal.
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