FORMER STAFF at the Vita Cortex plant in Cork yesterday called on owner Jack Ronan to clarify his involvement in a number of other companies and properties after Vita Cortex Cork said it had no funds to pay workers their redundancy.
Jim Power, one of 32 former staff who have been occupying the Vita Cortex plant on the Kinsale Road in Cork, said he and his colleagues were anxious to know whether Mr Ronan had other assets that he could use to fund their redundancies.
“We’ve heard that Mr Ronan has several other companies and properties in Cork and around the country and we would like to know what is the situation regarding those – is that the case and if so, why cannot he use funds from those companies to pay our redundancy,” he said.
According to a document seen by The Irish Times, Mr Ronan, in addition to his ownership of Vita Cortex, has an interest or shareholding in a number of named companies in various counties north and south of the Border.
The Irish Timessent a detailed series of questions regarding the companies and properties listed in the document to a spokesman for Mr Ronan yesterday afternoon but had received no reply at the time of going to press.
In a statement issued earlier this week on behalf of Vita Cortex Cork, company management said the firm was not refusing to pay redundancy to the 32 workers but it did “not have the funding to meet these obligations at this time”.
And the company said it told workers their redundancy would have to come from the State’s Social Insurance Fund unless Nama would agree to release €2.5 million held on deposit by another Vita Cortex firm on foot of an AIB loan taken over by Nama.
However, Nama yesterday moved to clarify its position after Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams contacted the agency and Nama chief executive Brendan McDonagh said Nama had no role to play in resolving the redundancy issue.
Mr McDonagh said that Nama has “no loans or relationship” with Vita Cortex in Cork and had no involvement or knowledge of the decision by the directors or shareholders to close the Kinsale Road plant and make the employees redundant.
“There is a lot of misinformation being peddled about Nama’s alleged involvement and I assure you the facts do not back it up,” said Mr McDonagh in a written response to Mr Adams.
“We were contacted by the shareholder on November 23rd to release funds from an unconnected company that he is a shareholder in that has loans with Nama. We examined this request very carefully and took legal advice.
“The deposits referred to are security for loans which AIB lent to another company with the same shareholder, These loans were acquired by Nama from AIB. This money must be used to help pay down that company’s debt to the Irish taxpayer through Nama.
“Nama cannot simply use assets belonging to one company to make payments to another unrelated company with which it has no financial relationship. We have no legal basis to do so,” he said, adding responsibility for the redundancy lay with the owners of Vita Cortex Cork.