A plant-hire business owned by independent TD Mattie McGrath and his family doubled its cash reserves last year and reported accumulated profits of over €65,000.
Edmund & M McGrath Plant Hire Limited, which has been awarded contracts by Tipperary County Council, Waterford County Council and Irish Water, is 45 per cent owned by Mr McGrath, while his wife and son own the remaining shares.
It more than doubled its cash balance from €47,000 to €97,551 last year, and its directors – the three shareholders – got a 13 per cent pay rise as they received remuneration totalling €60,893 from the company.
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The firm had tangible assets valued at €189,106 at the end of the accounting period, and was owed a total of €166,859 by debtors. Some €122,911 remained payable to creditors of the company.
The plant-hire business recorded an annual loss of €37,778 last year, although this was largely attributable to depreciation of €144,810 applied to the company’s tangible assets. In 2021, it made a profit of €65,693.
The firm employed 22 people last year, two more than during 2021, according to accounts just filed to the Companies Office.
The Oireachtas Register of Members’ Interests shows that Mr McGrath’s plant-hire company held contracts with two local authorities and Irish Water during 2022.
Speaking on Newstalk yesterday, he said there had been 50 water outages in Clonmel, Co Tipperary since April, calling for "immediate attention" to be brought to the issue.
"If they have no water they have to close down most of them, and that’s not good enough in these hard times," he said.
"They are paying rates and everything else, so Minister [Darragh] O’Brien needs to look at the situation and ensure that interim funding is found for interim solutions."
He also said he was disappointed that Tipperary County Council had refused Irish Water permission to test a borehole that had offered a potential solution to the outages.
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