AS MANY AS 600 jobs could be placed at risk after the High Court this afternoon declined to appoint an examiner to a family-owned chain of waste disposal companies – instead appointing receivers to the group.

Mr Binman, which directly employs 331 people in Munster, says up to 270 other jobs may be indirectly dependent on their business – and that those jobs could not be lost by the court’s decision.

The receivers were appointed on the application of the group’s largest creditor, Bank of Scotland, which the Irish Times said was owed €53m.

Justice Mary Finlay Geoghegan had this morning refused to confirm examinership, saying the companies had not made sufficient claims that they could continue as a going concern with a reasonable prospect of continuing operations.

The Mr Binman companies had been under court protection, but this no longer applies – meaning the receivers, Kieran Wallace and Padraic Monaghan of KPMG, could seek to impose job losses on the company.

The directors of the company did not appeal the decision to appoint an examiner, and did not oppose the subsequent appointment of the receivers.

RTÉ said lawyers for Bank of Scotland wished to assure workers that they would be paid tomorrow as usual. Representatives from the receivers said waste collections would continue and that the receivers would continue trading in the short to medium-term.

In a statement this afternoon the group’s directors said they had done everything in their power to save the company, and thanked the group’s employees, suppliers, customers and local banks.

Its founder, Martin Sheahan, said the bank had “taken millions upon millions of euros from us in repayments over the years – and if they were not running away from Ireland, we would not be in this situation today, in my opinion.

“It is incredible to think that a bank which had no problem coming to Ireland and giving and receiving money when times were good could be so quick to run away when times got tough.

“My life’s work has been Mr Binman and it is a sad day for family-run businesses and entrepreneurship in Ireland when a foreign lender takes a life’s work away.”