Celtic Helicopters, the aviation company run by Mr Ciaran Haughey, and Zoe Developments, the State's largest apartment builders, are among more than 3,000 private firms liable to be struck off if they do not submit annual returns within one month.
an Haughey is a son of Mr Charles Haughey. In recent months, the Moriarty Tribunal has heard that Mr Ciaran Haughey's Celtic Helicopters was the beneficiary of a number of substantial payments by associates of his father the former taoiseach Charles Haughey. No company spokesperson was available to comment yesterday evening.
Zoe Developments has developed apartment complexes throughout the State but the company has a poor safety record on its building sites. It pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court last Thursday of failing to take reasonable steps to ensure that a site on the junction of Gardiner Street and Parnell Street, in central Dublin, was safe and without risk. In 1996, a 71-year-old blocklayer fell to his death on the site. Attempts yesterday evening to reach a company spokesperson failed. Zoe Developments is controlled by Mr Liam Carroll.
Other firms on a list published yesterday by the Companies Registration Office include O'Dwyer Brothers Mount Street Ltd., a privately-owned company which leases O'Dwyer's Pub in central Dublin to Capital Bars group. The commercial director of Capital Bars, Mr Aidan Corcoran, expressed confidence last evening that returns for O'Dwyer Brothers Mount Street would be filed in time.
Compliance by companies of their obligation to file annual returns has traditionally been poor and the Companies Registration Office has tightened its regulations. Since last March, any company which has not filed a 1999 return is liable to be struck off.
In a document on enforcement the office warned that such firms and their directors face serious consequences.
Companies can apply for restoration to the register within 12 months of being struck off by filing a return, although directors of struck-off firms are liable for prosecution. Fines of £1,000 can be imposed on each company director and the company itself can face a fine of £1,000.
A list of some 3,500 firms struck off on June 2nd was published yesterday in Iris Oifigiuil. It did not include such firms as Beamish & Crawford plc, Adare Printing Group and USIT International plc, all of whom were warned last month to submit returns or face being struck off. Neither did it include Dobbins Wine Bistro Ltd. and undertakers Patrick Massey Ltd.
Yesterday's list of firms on strike-off notice, which runs to 47 pages, was published on the office's website at www.cro.ie. It includes Trans Aer Ltd., Mater Misericordiae Hospital Information Services Ltd., Pepsi Cola Manufacturing (Ireland) and Semperit (Ireland).
