BUILDING CONTRACTOR McCann Brothers has ceased trading, leaving €620,000 in unpaid bills and 160 jobs hanging in the balance on one State-funded project.

The Seskinore, Co Tyrone-based company, best-known for its work on the €35 million Lough Erne Resort, halted operations suddenly on Monday.

Directors Michael Cunningham and Liam McCann met staff to tell them they were being laid off and that the company was ceasing to trade in its current form. The company employed about 40 people directly.

McCann Brothers was working on a number of projects, including a school building in Kilkenny and a centre of excellence for Tyrone GAA at Garvaghy. Work halted on the school, at the Loreto Convent on Granges Road in Kilkenny city, on Monday morning.

Sub-contractors on the site are understood to be due about €620,000 for work on the project, while there is now a question mark over the jobs of 160 people who were employed there.

The Department of Education, which is funding the work, confirmed yesterday that the school told it that work there had stopped. Department officials met the school authorities yesterday to consider the next steps, a spokeswoman said.

It is understood that sub-contractors became concerned last week at the fact that the company had been falling behind on stage payments due for work done there already.

Late last week, one of McCann’s directors, Paul McCann, reportedly undertook to meet them at the Kilkenny site on Monday morning to pay them the sums that were due. However, directors decided at the weekend to cease trading.

Tyrone GAA’s county board is looking at ways of continuing to fund the Garvaghy project.

It was not possible to contact the company or its directors for a comment yesterday and it was not possible to establish if the company is in liquidation, receivership or some form of insolvency process. Some reports suggested that the company has debts of £1.6 million.