BUSINESSMAN PADDY MCKILLEN junior has been declared insolvent and has been granted a protection certificate by the High Court under the Personal Insolvency legislation which will protect him from his creditors for 70 days.

Barrister Keith Farry, who appeared for McKillen in a pre-lunch application to the High Court, outlined before Mr Justice Michael Quinn the restaurateur’s assets and liabilities.

Following the 70-day protection granted by Judge Quinn, McKillen will be able to seek to extend this legal protection by further application to the court.

Farry told the court that McKillen, who owns a Porsche, a BMW and a Volkswagen Golf, holds the legal title to his home at The Birches, Foxrock, Dublin, on trust.

The property had been purchased from his mother, Maura McKillen, by contract in April 2014 for €2.1 million in his name and that of his wife, Edel, funded by a Bank of Ireland mortgage of €958,000 in their joint names.

The court heard the balance of the purchase price of €1.15 million had not been paid and remains owing to Maura McKillen by her son and daughter-in-law.

By deed of trust McKillen holds the property on trust for himself, Maura McKillen and Tyrone, Kali and Dean McKillen in five equal shares and all sums owed to his mother have to be repaid before any distribution to the beneficiaries of the trust.

Mortgage instalments totalling approximately €659,000 had been paid by his mother since 2014 by way of loan to her son McKillen jr.

The current market value of the house is €2.45 million and debts ranking ahead of the trust beneficiaries are the mortgage balance of €734,650 – the balance of the purchase price of €1.15 million, and the instalments paid by his mother.

Farry said this amounted to a total of about €2,532,000 against a market value of €2.45 million before any costs of sale. On these figures the net value of the property available to the trust beneficiaries was nil and McKillen’s one-fifth share had no realisable value. His interest had been entered as an asset of €1.

Judge Quinn also heard that his former interest in 16 Leeson Park, Ranelagh, Dublin 6, was valueless as he denied any interest or claim in the property or proceeds.

McKillen and his wife, Edel McKillen, had been the registered joint owners which had been their family home from June 2016 to January 2025.

In December 2019 McKillen and his wife had confirmed by letter that, in exchange for Mrs McKillen’s agreement to the mortgage on the property being increased by a further €1.02 million against his business interests he had transferred his entire 50% interest to her and that the whole of the equity in the property was hers.

All of McKillen’s assets, personal debts and business debts were outlined by Farry to the court.

Farry, who appeared for McKillen and his insolvency practitioner, Eugene McDarby, in a pre-lunch application to the High Court, outlined before the judge the restaurateur’s assets and liabilities.

Following the 70-day protection granted by Judge Quinn, McKillen will be able to seek to extend this legal protection by further application to the court.

Farry was granted a protection certificate for the restaurateur businessman and co-founder of the Press Up hospitality group.

Farry told the court McKillen Jr was insolvent and had liabilities of €27.7 million. He has only €345 in his Bank of Ireland bank account.

McKillen Jr, who was not in court, owes €2.9 million to his wife, Edel McKillen, and €1.8 million to his mother Maura McKillen.

The High Court last month rejected McKillen Jr’s bid to set aside a bankruptcy summons over an alleged €2.1 million debt, but adjourned the case for six months.

In a judgment on 13 August, Judge Liam Kennedy dismissed McKillen Jr’s arguments to strike down lender Herbert Street Finance’s summons, finding that he had not established that the summons was an abuse of process, and was brought for “an ulterior motive”.

A number of Press Up group restaurants and venues recorded six-figure losses in the year before London-based lender Cheyne Capital took over the group from McKillen Jr and his business partner Matt Ryan.

Cheyne Capital, a long-standing finance partner of Press Up, which has since rebranded the chain as Eclective, took control of the hospitality group as part of a debt-for-equity swap in September 2024.

Press Up had set up many hospitality businesses in Dublin, including the Stella Cinema, a chain of Wowburger restaurants and several cocktail bars.