Firm that built set for Fair City is suing RTÉ
Morale low at national broadcaster as internal and external woes mount
RTÉ’s legal woes are continuing after a construction firm became the latest plaintiff to bring High Court proceedings against the State broadcaster.
The Irish Mail on Sunday has learned Dublin firm, Colm’s Wrapit Construction, which won a tender to carry out work on the set of Fair City two years ago, launched legal proceedings against RTÉ last month.
The nature of the dispute is still unclear but comes after Fair City star Tony Tormey, who plays the soap’s longest running character Paul Brennan, launched proceedings against the broadcaster for ‘negligence’.
The small construction business based in Lucan, west Dublin, was the successful bidder in a tender issued by RTÉ in 2020 when long-running soap Fair City underwent an extensive set refurbishment.
Second High Court action involving the soap
Publicly available documents detail the tender and list Colm’s Wrapit Construction as having outbid seven other companies vying for the contract.
The tender details RTÉ seeking a ‘company with experience in the construction industry’ who met the criteria as laid out on the e-tenders website.
The contract was subsequently awarded to Mr Colm Basset who owns and runs the business. The value of the contract is not listed but extensive work was carried out on the Fair City set at that time.
The soap was forced to relocate to a difMcCoy’s ferent site on the RTÉ campus after the original Carrigstown was knocked and replaced by a housing development after RTÉ completed the sale of land for €107m.
Dublin City Council subsequently granted planning permission for the set to move to the opposite side of the campus. This involved the relocation of 11 sets, including Pub and The Hungry Pig.
The plan sparked protests from local residents, concerned about the noise and long filming hours.
This week an RTÉ spokesman said they do not comment ‘on legal matters’. Colm’s Wrapit Construction failed to respond to a request for comment. It is the second legal action involving Fair City with Tormey having previously initiated a High Court action against RTÉ that could have implications for the broadcaster and the wider entertainment industry.
Tormey, 57, signalled his intent to sue for a ‘staff contract’ that would put actors and other contractors on a legal par with Montrose staff.
The High Court action was launched in June with Tormey’s solicitors lodging papers that put proceedings against the State broadcaster into motion.
While RTÉ produces the show and employs the cast, the nature of the business means actors’ employment can be temporary or causal.
Actors can often find that they work on a permanent basis – in some cases for decades, like Tormey – yet without the same rights or entitlements as someone who has worked with the same company for 10 days.
A SEVEN-YEAR-OLD girl waiting five years for hip surgery was told this week she will have to have three surgeries instead of just one because of the delays.
Little Abbie Murphy’s condition has deteriorated as a result of the delays, which are threatening her ability to walk unaided.
Her mother Claire told the Irish Mail on Sunday: ‘Every time we went up for her yearly clinic they’d say, “Oh, we’ll have it in six months”. And I’m listening to that for the last five years.’
Claire said Abbie, who loves swimming and acting, ‘used to be so active, but now I find at times with even shorter distances she is looking for the wheelchair’.
This week it emerged that complex spinal surgeries at Temple Street Children’s Hospital in Dublin were suspended for three weeks, leaving families ‘crying hysterically down the phone’ to an advocacy group and causing further anguish for children and families already waiting years for vital surgery – in some cases described as ‘life or death’.
Claire, from Dungourney, Co. Cork, said she had raised hopes of finally getting a date when the surgeon arrived at Abbie’s appointment on Thursday.
‘We had a discussion and he actually added on extra things. He’ll have to do her knees and her feet and ankles to help straighten them, because he could see they’re
‘We’ve been told before that it’s life or death’
deteriorating. He’s trying to prevent her going into a wheelchair full time.’
Abbie, who was diagnosed with double hip dysplasia aged two, ‘took it in her stride’, but for Claire it was ‘very upsetting because it’s just one-on-one with Abbie. I’m a single mum so it’s a lot to take, and then having to drive back home to Cork.’
Tonya Boyce from Kilmacanogue, Co. Wicklow, is similarly exasperated waiting for surgery for her daughter Cara, who has spina bifida and hydrocephalus.
‘They said she would need surgery on the hip before she was two,’ she told the MoS. ‘She’s five now on the September 14 and she still hasn’t had her operation. We’ve been brought in and prepped a few times, and then an emergency has come in and she’s been sent home.
‘There’s obviously worse-off children than Cara, but if they even gave you some idea of when it would happen…’
And the mother of a 13-year-old boy awaiting vital spinal surgery said her family has been left ‘holding our breaths’, as his condition deteriorates before their eyes.
Stephen Morrison, who is on the board of the Spina Bifida and Hydrocephalus Paediatric Advocacy Group (SBHPAG), told the MoS: ‘When scoliosis starts to crush your lungs, there’s no going back from that. A child’s lungs are not going to suddenly repair when her scoliosis is fixed. The longer that wait goes on, the more damage it’s going to cause.’
Stephen’s son Harvey is also awaiting vital surgery.
‘He was supposed to be in at the start of August, and we’ve had zero communication with Temple Street in relation to it.
‘He’s had pneumonia eight times from his lungs being crushed. We missed our family holiday this year because of that. And we were told at that stage that he needed surgery in August. We’ve also been told before that for Harvey it’s life or death, that if he doesn’t get the surgery he will die.
‘When you’re not getting any communication from the hospital as to where you are on these lists, it’s extremely frustrating.’
Stephen called the staff at Temple Street ‘amazing’, saying of the suspended surgeries: ‘It’s purely down to management’.
Children’s Health Ireland said the suspension was a necessary precaution amid resourcing issues. But SBHPAG has questioned how this could happen as €19m was pumped into the service this year.
The advocacy group has been instrumental in getting the Cappagh Kids initiative up and running at Cappagh Hospital in Dublin, which has lightened the load in Temple Street, where the most complex surgeries are carried out.
The work of surgeon Connor Green was praised by all the parents the MoS spoke to.
Una Keightley of SBHPAG said: ‘We are incredibly grateful to frontline staff for their hard work but we still have major concerns around timely access. The Minister’s office has failed to engage despite repeated promises.’