The family-owned chain of building materials suppliers Dublin Providers Limited (DPL) received more than €1.8 million in taxpayer Covid supports over the last two years, despite making record profits and boosting the pay of its top executives by almost 60 per cent last year.
DPL grew its annual profits last year by more than a fifth to almost €3.7 million, while its revenues also spiked by 22 per cent to almost €62.4 million, according to its most recent financial statements. Yet the company was still able to claim more than €454,000 last year alone in taxpayer supports to offset part of its wage bill.
It claimed almost €1.4 million in taxpayer supports the previous year when it also made profits of €3 million, higher than it had ever banked before.
At the same time as it was claiming taxpayer cash to subsidise the pay of its workers, the pay pot for its three executive directors grew last year by 58 per cent to €571,000, which is the figure it provides in its accounts for directors’ fees and also for the pay of top management.
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Financially robust firm
DPL, which owns 10 builders yards and is one of the financially-strongest firms in the sector, claimed the most recent taxpayer supports in a year at the end of which it had €6.8 million in its bank account, total accumulated profits of €31.5 million and total shareholder funds of €42.7 million. It did not pay a dividend to its shareholders.
The company is owned by 84-year-old south Dublin businessman Jerry Maher, who founded the group in 1971 and owns almost 83 per cent of its shares. A handful of Mr Maher’s family members hold stakes totalling 13 per cent, while 4 per cent is owned by another veteran Dublin businessman, Noel Keogh.
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Recent company filings for DPL suggest that more than half of the shares Mr Maher owns were transferred to him during the past year by a London company, Lumiere Investments, which is associated with a trust, the Pula Trust, that is administered from the tax haven of Mauritius.
This tranche of shares was transferred into Mr Maher’s name last November, the same month that he stepped down as a director of the business after 50 years. The following month, it wrote to its customers saying it “cannot continue to absorb” material price increases and was passing them on to customers, with price rises of between 3 per cent and 20 per cent.
John Peare, the managing director of DPL, was contacted for comment about DPL’s financial results and its taxpayer subsidies. He had yet to respond prior to publication.
Revelations by The Irish Times last December that hundreds of profitable businesses had paid dividends to shareholders while receiving taxpayer Covid subsidies sparked a series of reviews by Government and Revenue officials. Senior Government Ministers, including Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe, also suggested companies that did not need taxpayer supports should consider repaying them.
