School principal: We have a state of the art building waiting on the hill

PRINCIPAL of Coláiste Ráithín Gearóid Ó Ciaráin sympathised with those who find themselves out of work due to the liquidation.

‘I convey the sympathy of this meeting to the thousands of men and women let go and made redundant by the collapse of Carillion,’ he said. ‘ There is nothing more demeaning than doing an honest week’s work and not getting an honest week’s pay.’

He said that the blame does not lie with the civil servants or the NDFA. ‘ This is a very complex multi-billion situation and my real fear is that we are going to get locked up in some legal quagmire which will go on for months. It is very possible to see this thing finishing up in the high court in London in God knows what year.

‘ There is nothing more than a complete school, bells, whistles, everything, there ready to go, while our children play out there in the mud,’ he said. ‘While our home economics teachers have no kitchen in which to do the home economics sylla- bus, while our PE teacher has no place in which to play any games except the hall we’re in, while our technology teacher has a set of screwdrivers and very little else.

‘ That’s not good enough while there’s a state of the art building waiting up on the hill’

Deputy John Brady said that news of a voluntary liquidation came as a shock to some, while others would say this has been coming for a long time.

‘DIF are now the sole and lead agency for the development of the six schools,’ he said.

He said that initially announcements were made that there would be no time implications after Carillion went bust.

‘Last week events took a very sour turn when the contractors walked off the site,’ he said.

‘ The problem is now with certification, with a number of certs to be signed off on. DIF issued a statement saying they are 100 per cent wed to this project and want to see it through. Of €100 million due to them, only about four million has been paid to them.’

He said that the NDFA and minister will meet the school principals this Friday. ‘ The department needs to take a front and centre role,’ he said.

‘What the lawyers are trying to do at the moment is say, what are the guarantees, what are the back-ups,’ said Deputy Stephen Donnelly. ‘In an ideal world the construction costs and risk would already be underwritten and if a partner goes into liquidation you can activate a clause in the contract and everything just continues on, subcontractors come back on site and everything gets certified. That’s what’s “meant” to happen in these things. So this really is a legal issue.’ He said that the pressure the audience could bring as parents, staff, friends and students of the school is important.

‘Can this be resolved in a short number of weeks or is it potentially monts? What we have to avoid is the contract ending up in part of the liquidation of Carillion.’