Quinn Insurance wound up 13 years after going into administration

The High Court formally ordered the winding up of Quinn Insurance DAC, 13 years after the locally headquartered business was first placed into administration.

Mr Justice Conor Dignam made the order, appointing chartered accountant and insolvency expert Damien Harper as liquidator. The application was made on behalf of the company's joint administrators, Michael McAteer and Paul McCann of Grant Thornton.

The firm, founded by former billionaire Sean Quinn, was placed into administration in April 2010 at a cost of €1 billion to the State.

The court heard the company's sole creditor was the Insurance Compensation Fund, which the State uses to compensate policy holders after an insurance company goes bust.

Counsel for Quinn Insurance, Garvan Corkery SC, said the application was being made as all outstanding business had been completed.

The company was insolvent, has no assets, and there was no reality its debt to the ICF could be repaid, counsel stated.

The insurance business undertaking was sold to Liberty Insurance in 2011.

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

The last outstanding significant piece of business was the High Court action, where it alleged negligence against auditors PwC.

That matter was settled last year for amount that could rise to €83m, an Oireachtas committee was recently informed.

Justice David Barniville, current President of the High Court, has consented to the application to wind up Quinn Insurance.

There were no objectors.