Unpaid sub-contractors return to picket line at Loreto School
PROTESTING sub-contractors who have not been paid for work carried out on the Loreto secondary school, were back on the picket line at Killeens on Monday morning after the granting of a High Court injunction preventing them from blocking entrance to the site.
The injunction was granted to Inspired Spaces Bundle 5(Ireland) Ltd, a joint venture with the UK firm Carillion and the Dutch Infrastructure Fund which secured a tender from the State to build five schools and an Institute of Further Education.
The collapse of Carillion resulted in main sub-contractor Sammon Contracting Ltd going into liquidation and a replacement contractor Woodvale being appointed by Inspired Spaces to complete the almost-finished Loreto and other schools around the country.
Sub-contractors who are owed substantial amounts of money decided to place pickets on the premises after Woodvale moved in to complete the works, prompting legal action by Inspired Spaces to stop the blockade.
Larry Power of Wexford company Sky High Scaffolding said the protestors had been advised that they were entitled to stage a peaceful protest but not to block Woodvale workers from entering and exiting the sites.
He said a number of named contractors were summonsed to the High Court while the remainder were referred to in the legal documents received as ‘The Unknown’ and the case was adjourned until this coming Friday.
One of the contractors named in the injunction, Bobby Farrell said he now faces a legal bill for his court appearances on top of the money he is owed. ‘As if I wasn’t bad enough’, he said.
‘Basically, we were advised to move off, otherwise we would have been arrested’ said Mr. Power.
‘So long as we don’t intimidate anyone or block anyone entering or exiting, we are entitled to picket’, he said.
Representatives of the sub-contractors are due to attend a meeting with the National Finance Development Agency and the Office of Public Procurement in Dublin today (Tuesday) with the face-to-face arranged by Labour Party leader Brendan Howlin.
Mr. Power said the sub-contractors have been heartened by the ‘massive show of public support’ towards their situation. A public meeting will be held in the Riverside Park Hotel in Enniscorthy on Wednesday night at 8pm and all are welcome to attend.
The unpaid contractors were joined in their protest on Monday morning by Sinn Fein councillors Johnny Mythen and Thomas Forde and Fine Gael councillor Willie Fitzharris of New Ross with Fianna Fail TD James Browne and councillors Tony Dempsey and Lisa McDonald also calling to the picket line.
Cllr. Mythen and Forde carried placards with the message: ‘Wexford Politicians. Do Not Bury Wexford Contractors in Red Tape’.
The issue of the unpaid contractors was raised at a meeting of Wexford Borough District Council last week with Cllr. Forde describing it as a ‘major problem’ He sympathised with both the sub-contractors who have not been paid and the principal and staff of the school who are under additional stress because of a new threat to the opening of the secondary school.
‘It would be great if this Council could ask the Government to enter meaningful talks with the parties involved, to help negotiate payments for these businesses’, he said.
Labour cuuncillor George Lawlor agreed. ‘The sub-contractors have been treated like second class citizens in this. It’s essential that this is resolved. I fully support the sub-contractors in their protest’, he said.
Cllr. Lisa McDonald of Fianna Fail said the Minister for Education is ‘ignoring this situation’.
‘Until this is resolved we are not going to have confidence in public private partnership projects’, she added.