Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú)

Yesterday, families from Rathmolyon, County Meath, gathered in a Dublin hotel to attend a liquidation meeting. These families spent tens of thousands of euros on deposits for homes five years ago. In the intervening period, many have put off having a family while they were waiting, some were forced to move back into their parents' houses and others have spent €50,000 on rent. Two companies with the same owners and directors have used company law to allow the developer to become a secured creditor, putting himself at the top of a hierarchy of people to be paid in his own liquidation. He has also been put in charge of the liquidation process. His actions will lead to other creditors, families and Revenue getting burned for what is owed to them.

The meeting I attended was chaotic. Everything was disputed. It exposed great wrongs in the system. The key issue for the Government is that Revenue is likely to get burned for €700,000. Will the Taoiseach raise with Revenue the need for it to appeal to the High Court to overturn the current liquidator and seek an independent third-party liquidator?

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