No cloud over Castlebar jobs promise says company’s solicitor

No cloud over Castlebar jobs promise claim company’s solicitor


Shareholders in other Conway companies threaten legal action

Áine Ryan

NEWS of 250 skilled jobs for county town Castlebar has been overshadowed by a newspaper report which claims the oversight company, OpenSparkz is facing the threat of High Court proceedings by shareholders of other companies run by chairman and founder, Mr Declan Conway.
Taoiseach Enda Kenny officiated at the launch, in Washington last week of technology cluster, Global Sustainability Initiative, which reportedly will have its premises at the old Volex plant in Castlebar. OpenSparkz is presently completing contracts with ten companies working in food research, energy and waste management as the global impacts of climate change and fossil fuels become higher on governments’ and corporations’ agendas.  
Deflecting from the Irish Times story about disgruntled shareholders, Mr Conway’s solicitor has confirmed his client runs ‘a very healthy innovative and professional organisation’.     
Mr Cahir O’Higgins stated in an email: “This is a good organisation supporting job development and inward investment as well as impact at scale in the developing world.  They are doing fantastic work with great professional relationships and are widely recognised and respected as such.”
The Irish Times report revealed that investors in other companies run by OpenSparkz,  Pronanotect and Spearpoint Holdings,  were seeking the return of up to €1.9 million. Spearpoint and Pronanotect raised €1.6 million from BES (Business Expansion Scheme) backers in 2009 and 2010. The scheme required them to leave their money in the companies for five years before it could be redeemed.
Responding, Mr Conway said he would ‘be redeeming all BES shareholders’ but that this involved a complex process, already initiated and, moreover, that all the investors were not due to be paid yet.
In the statement on behalf of his client, Mr O’Higgins noted that it was ‘unrealistic to expect that a multinational organisation with over a 120 shareholders/stakeholders and staff would not have normal day-to-day business issues to deal with’.  

‘Bartering’
The Mayo News understands that the Castlebar initiative will be supported by the Global Sustainability Fund and can be explained in simple terms by the concept of ‘bartering’ .  For example, the future sustainability of some African communities would be ensured through the provision of medical, food and water aid in return for land tracts developing wood for pellets, which ultimately would supply, say, Moneypoint.
Speaking to The Mayo News last week, Mr Conway said that while he did not want to go into detail at this point regarding the jobs, he was optimistic that 250 positions would be filled over three years. Three of the companies confirmed for the innovative cluster are iFood, Viridis Aquaponics and Georgia Biofuels.
Castlebar-based Fianna FΡil Cllr Lisa Chambers, however, wants more concrete details about the promised jobs and when they will come on-stream.
She said last week: “We had the announcement of the Northbridge jobs two years ago and there has not been one job from it. I would like to see something concrete. The announcement is timely one year out from an election and we all know the Taoiseach is under pressure to make some sort of jobs announcement in his home town.”