Thomas Gould (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein)
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24. To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the support available to customers who had paid into Christmas clubs (details supplied) prior to their closure. [62654/22]

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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Media reports indicate the company concerned is arranging to enter the liquidation process.

Where a business has stopped trading, consumer legislation in Ireland will not apply as the company that a person has a customer contract with no longer exists - therefore there is no company to claim from. However, where they have gone into liquidation, they may be able to submit a claim for the value of loss through the liquidator, if any has been appointed.?

Liquidation is a process under the Companies Act 2014 that results in the company ceasing to exist. A company can decide to go into voluntary liquidation, in which case the company arranges voluntarily to enter liquidation. Where a third party (an unpaid creditor) wishes to pursue liquidation of an insolvent company, as its debt is not being addressed, an application must be made to the courts for a decision on whether a liquidator should be appointed to the company.

The liquidator’s job is to realise the assets of the company and to pay the creditors from the proceeds of any assets in the company. Where there are insufficient funds to pay all the creditors, the funds available are distributed to creditors in a particular order of preference.

In a liquidation, a customer who has an outstanding contract or is owed monies, may be deemed an unsecured creditor of the business. This would mean that they rank behind secured creditors, for example, such as Revenue who may be owed tax, employees who may be owed wages, and banks that are owed money.

Throughout the liquidation process creditors can go to court on any question arising in respect of the winding up of a company.

The Competition and Consumer Protection Commission explains what options customers may have in such situations. The information is available at the following link: www.ccpc.ie/consumers/shopping/companies-going-out-of-business/