Button Factory goes into examinership

ONE OF Dublin’s best-known music venues, the Button Factory, has gone into examinership.

Neil Hughes, of Hughes Blake, has been appointed interim examiner of Temple Lane Management Limited, the company behind the venue, which is controlled by businessman Paraic Dunning and Eoin Foyle. John Reynolds is also a shareholder.

The petition is to be heard next Friday in the High Court.

Manager Paraic Dunning said yesterday that, despite the move, it was “business as usual” at the Temple Bar venue.

“It remains a viable business, and there is absolutely no change to the running of the business. We have hundreds of bookings which will go ahead as planned.”

The live music venue, which is housed in the Temple Bar Music Centre, employs 34 people.

Mr Dunning said excessive rents and rates were the main reasons why the company had entered examinership. Weather conditions in December also led to the business losing €100,000 as a result of cancellations, he said.

The company is currently negotiating with Temple Bar Cultural Trust, which owns the Temple Bar Music Centre, about lowering rents, Mr Dunning said.

He added that, while the company is in arrears, it had spent €1.7 million refurbishing the venue. In addition, a change to licensing laws meant the company, which had been paying €500 per annum in licensing fees, was now liable for fees of €500,000.

The most recently filed accounts for the company show that Temple Lane Management Limited had a deficit of almost €1.9 million in June 2009, up from cumulative losses of €1.5 million the previous year.

The auditors’ note to the accounts state that the company has a “serious liquidity position with net liabilities of €1.876 million”, but noted that the directors had advanced large loans to the company, and had indicated their intentions not to seek repayment of their loans until such time as the company is in a position to repay them.

The accounts show that, as of June 2009, the company owed directors close to €1.3 million.

Mr Dunning was owed €854,000, Eoin Foyle was owed €207,000, while John Reynolds, who resigned as a director of the company in March 2008, was owed some €220,000.