Judge tells asylum seeker security firms to 'put heads together' and resolve their dispute
High Court reporters
A High Court judge has urged parties in a dispute relating to an attempt to wind up a company over an alleged disputed debt of €126,000 to "put their heads together" and resolve the matter.
Mr Justice Mark Sanfey made the comment on Thursday in a case in which Allpro Security Services Ireland Ltd was granted a temporary order on Tuesday restraining Top Security Ltd from publishing a petition seeking to wind up Allpro.
Allpro provides security staff for the former Dundrum Mental Hospital in Dublin, which are sourced through Top. The site is being used to provide temporary accommodation for asylum seekers. The court heard on Tuesday Allpro was "in a robust financial position".
When the case returned on Thursday, the judge was told by Tómas Keys BL, for Allpro, that Top had agreed not to advertise the winding up petition until the next adjourned date but his client did not want the matter to be listed in the High Court "winding up petitions" list on December 9th.
Louis McEntaggart SC, for Top, said his side's view was that the "reality of this case may dissipate" as it was his [counsel's] view there was no substance in what has been put before the court. However, he said, he was "in the court's hands" in relation to that.
Mr McEntaggart said given the nature of what is before the court,"minds may be applied in a week to a methodology about how this entire matter could be resolved".
If "heads can be knocked together" it would also seem worthwhile giving the parties liberty to apply to the court before December 9 to have it dealt with, he said.
The judge said it "seems crazy that there would be a three day trial over €126,000".
He said the parties seemed to be taking the prudent way of dealing with it. "I would certainly urge the parties to put their heads together because it makes no sense otherwise", he said.
He vacated the December 9th winding up date for presenting the petition and adjourned the matter to next week with liberty to the parties to apply to the court before then "in the event sanity breaks out".
Allpro has been contracted by the the Department of Integration to supply security staff for the former Dundrum Mental Hospital which is being used to provide temporary accommodation for asylum seekers.
Allpro in turn engaged Top to provide the staff but a dispute developed about payment related to what Allpro claimed was "clocking on and clocking off" by the security staff and the subsequent presentation by Top of invoices for that work.
