In short

A round-up of today's business news in brief

Mr Justice Peter Kelly, who on February 21st made orders requiring Tony McAuliffe and his son Dermot, of Furze, Kildare, to pay €7 million within seven days to the Irish branch of Investec Bank (UK) Ltd, heard yesterday no monies had been paid. The judge directed that Tony McAuliffe and his solicitor, John Duffy, of John Duffy & Co, Main Street, Monasterevan, Co Kildare, appear before him.

Judge orders man, solicitor to attend court

A judge has ordered a Co Kildare man and a solicitor to appear before the Commercial Court next month to answer questions about the repayment of €7 million to a bank.

Investec had brought proceedings against both McAuliffes seeking repayment of €7 million allegedly guaranteed by them in relation to a share purchase agreement with a firm involved in the proposed purchase of a 55-acre land bank in Co Offaly.

Firm in claim against council

A dispute in which an engineering company claims it is entitled to an additional €6.4 million from Dublin City Council over works on the James Joyce Bridge has come before the Commercial Court.

Carillion Irishenco is claiming €6.4 million for additional costs it claims to have incurred in fabrication works carried out on the bridge near Blackhall Place.

The council denied that it was entitled to the monies sought and the dispute went to arbitration. The arbitrator, John Higgins, decided on July 31st, 2007, that Carillion was not entitled to be paid any additional costs. The firm is challenging his decision.

Receiver for call centres

Údarás na Gaeltachta has appointed a receiver for the three call centres in counties Donegal, Kerry and Mayo that closed on February 28th.

The Gaeltacht development authority said Declan Taite of Farrell, Grant and Sparks would today outline to the 108 staff of the Contact 4 subsidiary centres how he proposes to deal with the issue of outstanding wages and other entitlements.

The Scottish firm has blamed a slump in the mortgage market for the closure of its Irish operations.

Training body for women

A training organisation has been set up to boost the State's low levels of female entrepreneurship.

Dublin Business Women's Skillnet will be funded by the National Training Fund through the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, and will provide networking and mentoring.

Two new Gazette papers

Gazette Group Newspapers, in which The Irish Times is a 43.8 per cent shareholder, is planning to launch two new weekly titles this month in a move that will boost readership of its papers to 175,000 a week.

The group plans to launch the Malahide Gazette this week with a Castleknock edition debuting on March 27th. The Swords Gazette was launched in February.

McInerney names Irish MD

McInerney has appointed John Crowley as managing director of its Irish homebuilding division.

He replaces Tommy Drumm, now group operations director for homes and contracting in Ireland and Britain.