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Ballybay Mart has reduced its deficit to €103,000 with the Property Services Regulatory Authority (PSRA) satisfied with the progress the mart is making.
The High Court heard on Tuesday that the PSRA is satisfied with the weekly reports the mart is making and the mart has appointed an accountant to oversee and manage its account.
“Progress is slow, but it is progress,” counsel for the PSRA Hugh McDowell said.
“The deficit has reduced from 26 November of €243,000 to €103,000 as of 9 December,” he told president of the High Court Justice Mary Irvine.
Next hearing of the case
He asked that the matter go back for mention again for perhaps a longer period of time “in the hope that direction of travel might remain the same” at the mart.
He said that the PSRA has suggested an adjournment of six to eight weeks.
Justice Irvine said she was “more than happy” to leave the matter on her list and that it would be “premature to make final orders” on the case on Tuesday. The case will come before the High Court again on 15 February 2022.
The undertakings the mart signed up to at the last hearing of the case in November remain in place.
Background
At that case in November, Justice Irvine lifted the mart’s licence suspension, which was handed down by the PSRA and the mart was told it would have to comply with a number of conditions set out in a court order.
The court heard that the mart had been in a deficit of in the region of €480,000 previously, with Justice Irvine stating that “cheques had been written, which if presented for payment and the debts not paid, would have left the [mart] in debt to the tune of €690,000”.
Counsel for the mart said at the time that the mart wanted to trade out of its difficulties.
Conditions
Under the conditions set down, the mart had to put in place an independent third party accountant and agreed not to provide credit to purchasers at the mart.
It was also to alert the authority “immediately when it becomes aware of any concerning issue or development regarding the client accounts”.
The fourth condition was that the mart would provide a weekly report in writing to the authority by close of business every Friday, where it would confirm that the mart is complying with the other conditions made as part of the court order.
In that weekly report, it must also “include a comprehensive update on progress in relation to the investigation and resolution of client accounts issues, the position in relation to the recovery of debts, governance generally, its financial situation and give the current level of the deficit of the client account”.
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