An examiner has been appointed to O'Brien's Irish Sandwich Bars with a number of stores around the country certain to close as a result. The company which started up in 1994 has debts in the region of €4m. The court heard the firm is now insolvent. Its lawyers told the court there are 85 stores in Ireland which employ 800 people. They said that due to the economic downturn and high rents a number of non performing stores will have to close but they didn't want to say how many for commercially sensitive reasons. In June, the British arm of O'Brien's was placed into administration as it too is battling challenging trading conditions. Mr Justice Brian McGovern said he was satisfied this was an appropriate case and appointed Paul McCann as interim examiner. He's to formulate a plan in a bid to save the company. The case is back before the court on the 22nd of July.