The Mallusk, Co Antrim, environmental engineering company Williams Industrial Services (WIS) has gone into administration with the loss of 145 jobs, leaving two significant, near-completed anaerobic digestors (AD) in limbo in the Republic.

WIS faced “contractual issues” that contributed to its collapse and administrators are examining current contracts to see “how they could be completed or not”, a spokesperson told the Irish Farmers Journal.

A £23m (€26m) project for the construction of one of the most advanced ADs in the Republic is understood to be one of the contracts that ran into “issues”.

The plant was due to begin operations early this year at Glenmore estate in Ballybofey, Co Donegal. It is “substantially complete”, said Karol McElhinney, director of the Glenmore group of companies, which also bought the 2,400-acre An Grianán estate for €17.4m last year.

The Glenmore AD received funding of £9.3m (€10m) from the Northern Ireland Executive’s Sustainable Use of Poultry Litter (SUPL) loan scheme.

It is designed to process 90,000t of slurry and waste each year, including 25,000t of NI poultry litter, with digestate from the plant being used on forestry land in the Republic. Gas was to produce electricity for local factories and fuel for the trucks transporting the litter.

A second AD plant, based near Ballymena, Co Antrim, also part-funded by SUPL, was built by different contractors and not affected. It is due to begin operation shortly.

WIS was also building Teagasc’s research AD in Grange, Co Meath.

The agency’s buildings officer, JJ Lenehan told the Irish Farmers Journal that it was 95% complete and WIS had not been working on the plant recently as it waited for a power grid connection.

“We’ve started a dialogue with the relevant parties,” Lenehan said. “We’ve only paid for works that are complete.”

Teagasc had not signed a draft maintenance contract with WIS before it went into administration, he added.

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An Grianán sold for €17.425m to McElhinneys