A boom-time developer has had €7.7 million of debts written off under a court-approved personal insolvency arrangement (PIA).
Mr Justice Alexander Owens approved the application made on behalf of Co Roscommon-based Ronan Meeley and an interlocking PIA for his wife, Niamh Meeley.
Mr Meeley (52), who is now employed as a hotel maintenance worker, had debts totalling €8.2 million arising from his construction and development businesses that entered receivership during the recession.
He founded Bespoke Construction LTD and was involved as a director and shareholder with two other development firms.
Under the plan, the father-of-three will pay off the €500,000 mortgage balance on his family home in Kiltoom, Athlone. The mortgage repayment period to loan servicer Pepper Finance Corporation (Ireland) DAC will be extended from eight to 18 years.
Unsecured creditors will receive a 0.2 per cent dividend. Ulster Bank is owed the bulk of this debt (more than €7.6 million) and is to receive a share of the €15,700 available to unsecured creditors.
Keith Farry, representing personal insolvency practitioner James Green of McCambridge Duffy, said Ulster Bank voted against the PIA in a creditors’ meeting but it was not objecting before the court.
Mr Farry said the two-year arrangements will return the couple to solvency, but they will not be afforded any “buffer or surplus” in reaching solvency, he said.
The judge also approved a separate arrangement allowing farmer and developer Martin O’Connor (54) to write off €5.4 million of his debts.
Mr O’Connor had debts totalling some €6 million arising from borrowings during the Celtic Tiger years to pursue commercial ventures.
Under the scheme, Mr O’Connor will get to keep his three-bed family cottage located in a mountainous area in Fermoyle. His mortgage will be restructured to allow him to repay the €104,000 owed over a 16-year period.
He will also retain sheep worth €2,800 and a property, valued at €60,000, which he operates as a car park to supplement his income.
Unsecured creditors, owed more than €5.4 million, will collect 0.01 cents in the euro, sharing a dividend of €636. This compares to nothing under a bankruptcy scenario, the court heard.
Pepper Finance Corporation DAC, owed €3 million, and Cabot Financial Ireland Limited, due €2 million, fall into this category and will be repaid €360 and €235 respectively.
The application was presented to the court by barrister Keith Farry, on behalf of personal insolvency practitioner Eugene McDarby.
In a sworn statement, Mr O’Connor said the arrangement was “crucial” to his personal and family position and to his ability to move on with his life. His engagement with a debt practitioner has provided him with “new light at the end of [a] long, dark tunnel of debt”, he said.
