It is a bitter irony for the former DTP Teo workers that the picnic tables they manufactured featured on the Late Late Show six weeks ago with the famous line "there's one for everyone in the audience". The members of the audience never got their tables.
The Co Donegal company, which ceased production two weeks ago after receiving a total of £240,000 in grants from Udaras na Gaeltachta, has left workers with weeks of unpaid wages.
The manager and 27 workers of DTP (Eireann) Teo in Gortahork are owed about £15,000 after cheques paid to them in the last weeks of operation bounced.
Shopkeepers and businesses in the village have also lost out after cheques they cashed for workers weeks ago were returned by the banks.
Anger in the area has been heightened by the fact that the company received grants totalling £79,000 from Udaras na Gaeltachta just two weeks before it closed down.
The main shareholders in the company, which is a subsidiary of the Donegal Timber Products Group, are Gregory Taylor and his wife Pauline.
The group also has a timber plant in Laghy in Co Donegal and another subsidiary of the group, Woodcut Garden Products, has operated from a plant in Tullow, Co Carlow.
Udaras na Gaeltachta has now been granted a temporary High Court injunction restraining the company shareholders from removing any assets from the Gortahork plant and from reducing their assets in the State to below £240,000. The full hearing has been adjourned at the request of DTP Teo and is due to take place in the High Court next Monday.
The manager of the Gortahork plant, Mr Duncan McGregor, said this week that his first concern was for the workers. He is personally owed about £2,000.
"What we want first of all is to get the workers their wages. There is about £15,000 owed in wages. It is appalling," he said.
Mr McGregor, who has managed the plant since it first opened in the summer of 1997, said the closure was all the more annoying because there were plenty of orders on the books although there was not enough timber for the men to work on.
A number of suppliers are also owed large sums of money.
The plant reopened in March after being closed since last October.
Mr Taylor was in discussions with Udaras na Gaeltachta before the plant reopened and it was agreed that DTP would be given further grants.
A spokesman for Udaras, Mr Padraig O hAolain, confirmed that £79,000 was given to the company on April 2nd. The plant ceased production on Friday, April 16th.
The workers placed a picket on the plant that Friday claiming that a large amount of stock was being removed.
Mr McGregor said he became worried when four lorry-loads of stock left the plant the day before. When two more lorry-loads were filled that Friday morning, workers placed a picket on the plant and blocked the road to prevent them from leaving, as they feared the intention was to strip the factory of all stock and machinery.
Udaras na Gaeltachta sent a letter revoking a grant of £204,906 and a rent reduction grant of £35,510 to the company on April 22nd.
In an interview with the Done- gal Democrat the week after the plant closed, Mr Taylor blamed Udaras for the closure of the plant because funds were "late again this month". He also gave workers a number of commitments that pay cheques would be honoured.
One of the workers, Frank Gallagher, said he has had his last two pay cheques returned twice by the bank. The cheques were signed by Pauline Taylor. Mr Gregory Taylor could not be contacted over recent days.
Another employee, Eoin Curran, who has worked with the company since it opened in Gortahork, is owed a total of £780 after four cheques bounced. A number of these cheques had been given over a period of weeks to shop-owners or businesses. "I will have to pay back the shops now and I am left with nothing," Mr Curran said.
Mr Gallagher, a father of three children who has returned to Donegal after years of working abroad, said the men were not hopeful of ever getting paid. "Everybody is very disillusioned about this. There is no public trust in the place whatsoever," he said.
Mr adraig O hAolain said that in going to the High Court, Udaras had taken "the most prudent step", which would "hopefully in the medium term enable workers to get their entitlement". He said that "with the benefit of highsight", it appeared workers had "good ground for concern" over the last weeks of production.
Mr O hAolain said a condition had been imposed before the final £79,000 was handed over to Mr Taylor, that an independent assessor would be sent in.
In the area there is widespread criticism of Udaras for continuing to give grants to DTP Teo. Mr O hAolain said it was a situation where "you are damned if you do, and damned if you don't".
Udaras was told the £79,000 was needed to solve cash-flow problems. "It is now clear that a sufficient amount of these monies were not allocated to ensure that workers would be paid up to date," Mr O hAolain said.
If Udaras obtains a full injunction against DTP Teo on Monday, the way would then be open for a receiver to be sent in.