ONE MORE THING: WHILE QUINN Group chief executive Paul O'Brien spoke to me this week about the arson attack on his home and other unsavoury events in recent months against company property, he also gave me a flavour for how the construction-related and glass manufacturing business is performing.

“It’s doing as well as can be expected in very difficult markets and against the backdrop of a share receiver enforcement,” he said.

“The business is keeping its market shares, is doing as well as it can in markets such as construction.”

He said suggestions that a number of customers have stopped trading with Quinn Group were “strictly not true”.

“There’s been one significant customer that has decided to take their business elsewhere but that’s not the end of the world.

“There’s been a number of smaller ones that have suspended their activities until they see the outcome of the restructuring but they are not material to the overall scale of the group.

“Given what we would have thought could potentially have happened we are pleased with the performance.”

He said Quinn Glass has won a significant contract with Jacob’s Creek, Australia’s largest wine brand.

“That’s a significant vote of confidence in the business,” he said.

The shareholders – Anglo Irish Bank and other financial institutions and bondholders – are due to put €40 million into the business by the end of September, having already put that amount in since taking control in April.

“There is a restructuring that is ongoing and needs to complete.”

Separately, Grant Thornton, the administrators to Quinn Insurance Ltd, has appointed Christie Co in Britain to find a buyer for the Crowne Plaza hotel in Cambridge. The 198-bed hotel has as asking price of £35 million.