The examiner appointed to McEnaney Construction Ltd earlier this month hopes to call a creditors' meeting next week. Colm Keena, Public Affairs Correspondent, reports.

Michael McAteer of Foster McAteer has said he is in advanced negotiations with a new investor. If a scheme of arrangement is supported by creditors next week, then the approval of the courts would be sought the following week.

Mr McAteer was appointed examiner to McEnaney Construction by the High Court after it was told the company had a deficit of €5.2 million.

McEnaney Construction is owned by Seán McEnaney of Willow Grove, Dundalk, Co Louth. In an interim report to the court, Mr McAteer said the company had 14 employees and 45 subcontractors and was engaged in the development of five sites. The total value of the projects was about €67.5 million and the company had borrowings of about €62.5 million.

However, it had experienced difficulty in selling some of its properties and was forced to cut off construction after the banks refused to provide new financing.

The firm's latest set of filed accounts, for the year to April 2006, show it made a pretax profit of €1.1 million, down from €2.1 million the previous year.