THE HIGH Court has approved the payment of monthly living expenses of just over €30,000 to the five adult children of bankrupt businessman Seán Quinn and three of their spouses.
The court made orders granting the eight Quinn family members various sums in living expenses, ranging from €2,995 for Mr Quinn’s youngest daughter Brenda to €8,184 for Ciara Quinn and her husband Niall McPartland who are unemployed with two children and a third expected.
The expenses were approved as the accounts of family members have been frozen below €50 million as part of legal proceedings taken by the former Anglo Irish Bank, now Irish Bank Resolution Corporation, over the family’s international property empire on which €455 million is owed.
Family members outlined, in affidavits, money spent on groceries, entertainment, fuel, car parking, care of dogs and sandwiches from Subway, their counsel Brian O’Moore SC told the court.
The expenses were signed off to Brenda Quinn, an accounts assistant on an accounts salary of £20,000: €3,743 for Colette Quinn, a married mother of one working with a joinery firm in Co Derry, and €7,775 for Aoife Quinn and her husband, Stephen Kelly.
The payments to Aoife Quinn and Mr Kelly, who are unemployed, will fall to €5,375 a month after payments in August which include expenses for the birth of a child and for moving to York in England to seek work.
Seán Quinn jnr has approval for €5,273 a month in expenses to pay bills while he is in prison serving the remainder of a three-month sentence for contempt-of-court orders stopping him from stripping assets in the property group.
Karen Woods, who married Mr Quinn in May, was permitted expenses of €2,895 a month including mortgage repayments on two rental properties in Clonsilla and Kimmage, Dublin.
The judge also granted Barry O’Donnell, acting for IBRC, orders freezing the accounts of Ms Woods and appointing receivers over her assets apart from the two rental properties and her home in Castleknock, west Dublin.
Mr Justice Peter Kelly directed her to disclose all assets and bank accounts in her name on or before August 13th. She must also disclose any actions taken by her to put assets beyond IBRC’s reach.
Receivers Declan Taite and Sharon Barrett of accountants RSM Farrell Grant Sparks were also appointed over the assets of Ms Woods. The court allowed law firm Eversheds to cease representing Mr Quinn’s nephew Peter Darragh Quinn on grounds the firm has been unable to take instructions from him since he failed to attend a court hearing on July 20th.
Mr Justice Kelly was told that $32 million (€26 million) in rent from a Russian office block owned by the Quinn family remains unaccounted for and unexplained.
