A GOLF course developer has parked a caravan at the entrance of a course in Cork and has vowed to stay there until he is paid nearly €700,000 in court-awarded fees.
Mel Flanagan of Irish Golf Design is blockading the John Daly-designed Blarney Golf Resort in Co Cork.
Mr Flanagan says he won't move from the site until Kelcar Developments pays the money awarded to him by the courts last December.
Mr Flanagan insists the move was a last resort and that all he ever wanted was to be paid money owed to him.
"I am here to get my money. We owe Revenue money, we owe our subcontractors money, we have got a bridging loan with the Ulster Bank. We are an award-winning company. The golf course out here [ in Blarney] is as good as we ever have built.
"It just seems to me that they [ Blarney Golf Resort] don't have any respect for the law of this land. It is a clear judgment from the 19th of December and it gives an exact amount. I need to pay what was awarded by the High Court and basically that is why I am here."
Irish Golf Design was employed to build the 18-hole John Daly-designed championship golf course three years ago. But a dispute arose towards the end of the building work and Irish Golf Design's association with the project ended.
The dispute ended up in the High Court and last December it ruled that Irish Golf Design be paid €678,268 in costs and interest penalties. The company has yet to receive any money from Kelcar Developments.
Mr Flanagan told the court Kelcar Developments had terminated his firm's €3 million contract to design and construct the golf course and had employed sub-contractors to complete the development, which he alleged was 95 per cent finished.
Kelcar insisted a letter of appointment had made it clear either party was entitled to terminate the contract by written notice.
Yesterday Kelcar director Frank McCarthy told Cork's 96FM that he was willing to pay Mr Flanagan what he was due but he [ Mr Flanagan] would not agree to a certain process.
"I had the understanding until Thursday morning that we were coming to an agreement . . . following three days of negotiations. We are in a situation now where Mr Flanagan wants to be paid directly and he is no longer dealing with his solicitor with whom he was dealing with or using up until Wednesday. And he wants the money paid up in advance of any formal legal agreement.
"We can't do that . . . I am still available and still open to further discussion. Everything is open here - we are business as usual."
Blarney Golf Resort, which opened in 2006, is the brainchild of local developer John Kelly and his partner Frank McCarthy.