Debt enforcement of €314,000 to go ahead alongside Garda investigation into ‘threatening’ men

A judge has refused to halt enforcement of a €314,868 debt pending the outcome of a Garda investigation into an alleged incident in which two unidentified men claiming to be “republicans” sought debt recovery in a “threatening” manner.

Breffni Building and Civil Engineering Group sought the stay in High Court proceedings taken against it by Leder Plant Ltd over the debt.

The case, Judge Michael Twomey said, was “very unusual”. On one hand, it was a straightforward application for leave to enforce an adjudicator’s July 2026 decision that Breffni owes Leder €314,868, plus VAT, for building works completed at Momentum Business Park, Naas. Leder’s original claim for those building works was about €563,326, he noted.

On the other hand, Breffni wanted enforcement stayed because of a “frightening incident” at the home of one of its directors two days after the adjudicator’s decision.

Breffni claimed two unidentified men, who claimed to be “republicans”, sought to recover “in a threatening manner” the sum of €563,000 that they said was due to Leder.

Nora O’Gara Flynn and her husband Rory Flynn are both directors of Breffni and O’Gara Flynn was on her own at home at the time, he said.

In a sworn statement, O’Gara Flynn had said the men communicated with her via the video and security gate to her house. She said she answered a call and a male voice had said I or we were “looking for Rory Flynn”. She asked who he was and, she said, he responded “there’s a dispute between Rory and Dermot Finn [a director of Leder]”, Finn was owed €563,000 “and we’re here to sort it”.

O’Gara Flynn said that when she asked the men to leave contact information, they said they “don’t leave contacts or anything like that and that they were here to sort money ... owed to Dermot Finn from Leder Construction”.

O’Gara Flynn and her husband made statements to gardaí and an investigation was under way, the judge said. Gardaí had told her the alleged conduct fell under the offence of making an unwarranted demand with menaces and, because of the alleged paramilitary involvement, the matter had been escalated to the Special Detective Unit and was being treated “very seriously”.

In light of the alleged incident, counsel for Breffni had submitted Leder had completely bypassed the Construction Contracts Act 2013, had sought a parallel, allegedly illegal track of enforcement via physical duress and the court should not order enforcement pending the outcome of the Garda investigation.

This was a “very serious” allegation to make in written submissions, particularly as Finn had provided sworn evidence denying any knowledge of the actions of the two men and denying those actions were done on behalf of him or Leder, the judge said.

It was important to note no charges have been brought against Finn or Leder and the matter was at investigation stage, he said.

Breffni, he also said, did not dispute it owed €314,868 to Leder for the building works and the adjudicator’s decision was binding on it.

If the court declined to enforce, that would be a “significant” restriction on the right of a builder to recover funds for work actually done, the judge said.

There was no prejudice directly to Breffni by refusing a stay as it accepted the money was owed to Leder, he said. There was also no evidence of how payment of the debt due would prejudice the investigation, and any future prosecutions, he also said.

While agreeing with counsel for Breffni that what allegedly occurred was “an affront to the rule of law”, the judge said that did not mean a lawfully due debt to Leder, which Breffni believed was behind the alleged wrongdoing, should not be paid.

“The rule of law involves guilt being proven, not assumed,” he said. The rule of law was upheld by the continued criminal investigation of the incident being separate from the enforcement of a debt due to Leder, which was not currently charged with any offence, he concluded.