This article is from page 2 of the 2008-10-07 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 2 JPG
JOBS are under threat in Ennis with the announcement that the hotels in the Dunne Hotel group are to go into liquidation.
The Woodstock Hotel, which cur- rently has 39 people on the payroll, is one of three hotels for which a liqui- dator has been appointed.
It has also been announced that Cronan Nagle Construction, one of Clare’s best known buildiung com- panies is facing liquidation.
Sources at the hotel said that it is keeping its doors open, with business as usual and all existing bookings are being honoured.
Sources have also said that while
staff are very concerned about the situation, they are hoping that the public in Ennis will support the busi- ness going forward.
The businesses have been in ex- aminership since June and the High Court has now been told they have no prospect of survival.
The hotels facing going out of busi- ness are the Woodstock in Ennis, Patrick Punches in Limerick and the Clybaun in Galway.
Other hotels in the group, the Two Mule Inn in Limerick and the Ridge- pool in Ballina are to have a receiver appointed by the Bank Of Scotland, who are their main creditors.
The court was asked to take no ac- tion in relation to the sixth concern,
the Seno Hotel and Property Ltd as this would have a reasonable pros- pect of survival.
Price-Waterhouose Coopers have been appointed as provisional liqui- dators and Mr Justice Barry White made the matter returnable until October 13 next after counsel for the exmainer, Rossa Fanning asked that the hotel be allowed to continue in operation to honour any existing bookings.
The family-owned business, run by Brendan and Hilda Dunne ran into difficulties last year.
The hotels suffered a serious down- turn with the fall-off of American visitors. The firm has said that the weakening of the dollar, a strong
euro and the emergence of cheaper holiday destinations has seen the number of Americans coming to Ire- land drop dramatically.
Meanwhile, Cronan Nagle Con- struction, the Clare building contrac- tors who worked on the ESB power plant at Moneypoint as well as 400 sustainable houses in Clare is to go into liquidation.
The directors of the company, which was formed in 1999, have called a meeting of creditors for later this month, when it 1s expected the business will be wound up.
The company, which had also worked on projects in Nigeria, could not be reached yesterday for a com- ment.