Injunction stops picket at incomplete schools
WORK has resumed on two schools in Bray following a High Court injunction forcing subcontractors to cease picketing over the non-payment of money owed to them.
Prior to the injunction last Wednesday, subcontractors maintained their picket and insisted they would not allow the schools to open until they are paid. They began their protests on Monday, July 16, at the site of Ravenswell Primary School and Coláiste Ráithín in Bray, as well as Loreto in Wexford.
Protests continue in Wexford, without blocking the site, but have ceased in Bray.
The consortium Inspiredspaces was granted a temporary injunction, preventing subcontractors from blockading the sites. The company Woodvale has been tasked with completing the work by August 27.
The collapsed UK company, Carillion, was a 50 per cent shareholder in Inspiredspaces. The remaining partner is a Dutch company called the Dutch Infrastructure Fund (DIF).
Irish company, Sammon, had been subcontracted by Carillion to carry out the building work on its behalf. But Sammon went into liquidation last month.
Offally-based contractor John Foran said that he is owed approximately €80,000 for building pitches at Coláiste Ráithín. This week, he said, he and his team are working at a different site in the west. There is still no sign of the money, he said. He understands that spokesmen for the contractors will be meeting the finance committee in the Dáil this week.
Last week, Mr Foran said ‘Sammon are gone, Carillion are gone… from a Government point of view, they’re pushing ahead and the subcontractors are left swinging in the wind for millions, that’s what we’re owed. We’re talking small companies, family businesses.’
Other subcontractors include Hackettstown’s Pat Smith, who completed groundworks at Tyndall College in Carlow, who said he is owed €100,000; and John Burke of Ryan Road Kerb, who said that his company is owed €250,000 for site works at Ravenswell.
Subcontractors said that, as well as being owed money for work carried out, they have installed equipment on the sites in question.
Other schools in the bundle include Eureka Secondary School in Kells, Co Meath; Tyndall College in Carlow; and Carlow College of Further Education.
The High Court heard last week that Inspiredspaces did not owe the subcontractors money; it had paid Carillion for the work done, and Carillion had paid those funds to Sammon.
Ms Justice Caroline Costello granted an interim injunction preventing the defendants and others from blocking, interfering or impeding access from and construction works at the schools. They are also restrained from trespassing at the schools or from removing any items from the schools, except with the consent of Inspired Spaces.
In a statement, DIF said the blockades had prevented Woodvale staff from accessing the site to continue works.
It said Inspiredspaces had no information on the detailed contractual and payment arrangements between Sammon and its subcontractors. It said this was a matter for the Sammon liquidator.
DIF said Inspiredspaces was investing ‘unforeseen additional capital’ to accelerate works and that the blockades had been ‘extremely disruptive to the whole process’.
In the statement, DIF asked the subcontractors to consider ‘the wider impact that their actions are having on their local communities’.