Quinn Insurance formally wound up 13 years after entering administration

The High Court has made an order formally winding up Quinn Insurance DAC 13 years after it was placed into administration by the then government.

Mr Justice Conor Dignam made the order appointing chartered accountant and insolvency expert Damien Harper as liquidator of the company, founded by bankrupt former billionaire Sean Quinn.

The insolvency of Quinn Insurance cost the taxpayer some €1 billion in payments from the Insurance Compensation Fund (ICF), which is used to compensate policyholders when an insurance company enters liquidation.

The court heard ICF was the company’s sole creditor.

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The government took the decision to place the insurer into administration following the collapse of Sean Quinn’s business empire during the economic recession and banking crisis.

The application to appoint Mr Harper was made on behalf of the company’s joint administrators Michael McAteer and Paul McCann, of Grant Thornton.

Senior counsel for the company Garvan Corkery told the court the application was being made as all outstanding business of the administration has been completed.

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The company was clearly insolvent, has no assets and there is no reality that its debt to the ICF can be met, counsel said.

The company was run by the administrators and has been under the supervision of four different presidents of the High Court since 2010.

Counsel said the insurance business’s undertaking was sold to Liberty Insurance in 2011.

All of its other assets, subsidiaries and undertakings have been dealt with and any value realised, counsel added.

The last significant piece of business involving Quinn Insurance was the administrators’ High Court action alleging negligence against the firm’s auditors PricewaterhouseCoopers alleging negligence from 2005 to 2008. This case was settled last year, counsel added.

Mr Justice David Barniville, president of the High Court, had consented to the winding up application being made, counsel added.

The were no objections to the application and, after being satisfied that all relevant parties had been put on notice of the application, Mr Justice Dignam made the order winding up Quinn Insurance.