SUBCONTRACTORS’ PICKET – NO SCHOOLS WILL OPEN UNTIL WE ARE PAID
SUBCONTRACTORS at a number of new school buildings have insisted they won’t allow the schools to open until they are paid money owed to them.
A number of entrances at schools in Bray and Wexford were blocked off this week, with subcontractors saying they won’t be allowing the schools to open until they receive what they are owed.
The small subcontracting companies had been employed by Sammon Contracting Ireland, which has since gone into liquidation.
Sammon had been contracted by Carillion Construction, which also went bust, to complete a package of six schools under a Public Private Partnership, including Ravenswell Primary School and Colaiste Raithin in Bray.
It is understood around €14m is owed to subcontractors over a number of new school builds.
Last Monday, Meath man John Burke said his company, Ryan Road Kerb, was owed €250,000 for side works at Ravenswell.
‘We are trying to resolve this but it is our view that the schools in question shouldn’t be allowed to open until the subcontractors are paid. We realise it’s out of the hands of the Department of Education but it is bad financial management from the NDFA and the DIF who allowed Sammon be overpaid and not deal with its responsibility.’
Hacketstown contractor Pat Smith, who completed groundworks at Tyndall College in Carlow, which is also part of the school bundle, said none of the affected schools will open until the contractors have been paid.
‘Nobody will engage with us, not the Department of Education, not the DIF’. I’m owed €100,0000 and Sammon have disappeared. But nobody is going to certify the works that I’ve carried out only me.
‘No children will be going into any of these schools in September until we are paid. Someone needs to talk to us.’
Offaly man John Foran who runs Emerald Pitch Development said he is due around €80,000 for building the pitches at Scoil Raithin in Bray.
He said subcontractors want the Government to step in and pay them what they are owed.
‘All the subcontractors are owed a lot of money, the school in Bray here is all but finished. Sammon are gone, Carillion are gone, the schools are nearly finished. Everyone wants the schools opened,’ he said.
‘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.’
In response to the protest, the Department of Education said that while the situation was ‘regrettable’, it did not enter into any contract with these subcontractors.
‘While the situation faced by subcontractors who have not been paid for work undertaken is very difficult, given that their contractual counterparty is in liquidation, it would be regrettable if there were now further delays in the opening of the schools, given that neither the schools nor the Department of Education and Skills were party to the contracts in question,’ a statement read.
‘Neither the department nor the NDFA (National Development Finance Agency) have information on the detailed contractual and payment arrangements between Sammon and its subcontractors.
‘ These matters were agreed exclusively between the private parties, as is the norm on any school building or public works contract.
‘Sammon is now the subject of statutory liquidation proceedings and therefore engagement with Sammon’s creditors is the responsibility of the court appointed liquidator,’ the department added.