Court orders show businesses under the cosh

Date Published: 13-Oct-2010

Galway’s districts courts are becoming more and more like debtors’ courts as small businesses and sole traders find themselves in financial trouble.

In a sign of the times, there were sixteen such cases alone before Athenry District Court on Tuesday morning involving sums as high as €45,000 – and as low as just €400.

Similarly in Spiddal District Court last week there were a dozen such cases heard and the number involving financial institutions seeking instalment orders against debtors is increasing in district courts around the county.

In Athenry, Judge Joseph Mangan presided over 16 listed cases involving banks or other lending agencies seeking instalment orders.

Three of the defendants had been self-employed but told the Court that their businesses – a horticulturalist’s, a joinery and an off-licence – had since closed because they couldn’t repay their business loans.

There was a committal order granted against one man who had failed to meet an instalment order made against him in a previous Court hearing. He had failed to make repayments to St Jarlath’s Credit Union. There was also a bench warrant issued for his arrest when he failed to appear at Tuesday’s hearing.

Another man had bought materials from a builders suppliers to construct his house and had been brought to Court for non-payment of a bill of €400.

See full story in this week’s Connacht Tribune.