Packaging group Ardagh is to go ahead with plans to build a low-cost glass manufacturing plant in the Republic after advances to the owners of the Quinn group’s glass operations were rebuffed, the company told analysts yesterday.

Chairman, Paul Coulson, chief executive Niall Wall and chief financial officer John Riordain said that they had expressed interest in buying the Irish-based glass container manufacturing business of the Quinn group, now controlled by its banks and bondholders.

But the expression had not gained “much traction” so the firm intends to build a low-cost glass container facility here.

It cannot take over Quinn’s glass interests in Britain or Northern Ireland for competition law reasons.