Eyre Square Galway

After digging the whole place up and making complete sh1te of it the contractors have suddenly disappeared , awol or bust one knows not

Galway Corpo has spent about €7 Million and got 1 new taxi rank and 6 new bus shelters for all its trouble.

Now the corpo has to buy the site (site = the very middle of Galway City) back off the liquidator and finish it , hopefully by the end of 2006 for the christmas shopping but you never know with Galway corpo.

end 2007 maybe , it'd be a great go kart track in the interim.

<sigh>

Just to cheer you up, Tonka...

Galway City Council to meet over Eyre Square dispute

Last updated: 27-06-05, 17:12

Galway City Council is to meet this evening to discuss the dispute over the Eyre Square redevelopment in the city.

Construction workers on the controversial €9 million project today walked off site. Work on the city centre refurbishment ground to a halt after teams of builders failed to man the job.

A spokeswoman for Samuel Kingston Construction refused to comment on the situation saying the company would be making an official statement sometime "in the next 24 hours."

A spokesman for Galway City Council said officials were seeking legal advice after employees from Samuel Kingston Construction walked off. He said the workers had abandoned the job without notice.

"Galway City Council wishes to express our deep disappointment and annoyance at the decision of Kingston Construction to walk off-site at Eyre Square despite repeated and ongoing attempts with the contractor to secure the completion of the contract by the November deadline," he said.

The spokesman said no warning had been given of the stoppage, adding all work carried out on-site, under terms of the contract, had been paid for in full by Galway City Council.

Work on the redevelopment of the square began in May of last year and was due to be completed by November. But the redevelopment has been dogged by criticism from the outset due the slow pace of work and the massive disruption to businesses in the city centre.

The Health and Safety Authority (HSA) carried out a number of inspections at Eyre Square over the last year. No safety issues were identified by the HSA that would warrant the site being closed.

Earlier this year workers walked off site in a row over wages.
© 2005 ireland.com

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From an interview with a SIPTU official on the Last Word tonight, it appears that the decision by the contractors to walk away from the job happened just after SIPTU approached the contractor about getting pension contributions paid over into the pension fund and getting an overtime premium for staff.

Good old SIPTU, acting in the national interest as usual...

To be fair if this was one of the Contractors that wasn't paying into the pension fund then SIPTU were right to approach them. In the construction industry it is not uncommon for Pension contributions to be taken from the pay packets but never invested into the pensions.

I don't know if that's what happened in this case, but I'd have no problem shutting down a site even one as important as the center of Galway if the contractor was up to this sort of tricks.

My only question would be why it took so long to figure this out and bring it to a head?

-Rd

Presumably the company in question can be pursued throught the courts for breech of contract? Why didn't Galway Corpo do the job themselves from the outset? Surely they could find enough shovel nursers and hole analysers to do the job?

Henny Penny said:

Presumably the company in question can be pursued throught the courts for breech of contract? Why didn't Galway Corpo do the job themselves from the outset? Surely they could find enough shovel nursers and hole analysers to do the job?

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Because the great God of privatisation dictates that we have to add a private sector profit margin onto the costs of all such initiatives.

RainyDay said:

Because the great God of privatisation dictates that we have to add a private sector profit margin onto the costs of all such initiatives.

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don't forget the bit about it still being cheaper and quicker (in general) to get the private sector to do the job. Before you ask; no, I don't have the links to back that up, I've just been listening to the radio, watching the TV and reading the papers for the last 20 years.

The latest on this fiasco is that the contractors maintain they are not in breach and that the contract is therefore still in place. The corpo say that they are in breach but has not taken any legal action to ensure that the contract is terminated cleanly and quickly , thereby enabling them to retender it promptly and resume work .

The corpo will try to get the traffic moving a bit for the races , and will complete that temporary work soon , but beyond that there is no sign of the rest of the outstanding work being put out to tender for contract, never mind finished .

I'd say that the whole lot will be boarded up (to hide it) , possibly before the races but by end August latest, and there matters will remain until well into 2006 .

Meanwhile the corpo , officials and councillors, have kicked the whole issue off to a committee of local business heads who do not have the legal authority to do anything much but who will unfortunately (for them) take the rap for the delayed resumption of work.

Because the great God of privatisation dictates that we have to add a private sector profit margin onto the costs of all such initiatives.

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Surely you're not suggesting that the Government should have in it's employ people who can perform every conceivable job. It makes as much sense for a Government to outsource non-core activities as it does for any business.

Would AIB, BofI, Intel, Microsoft, or any other company in Ireland create a contruction division within their own company to hire and train builders to work on their premises or etc? Of course not.

I think the problem you're referring to is more with PPPs than with getting work done by Private Companies.

Rd

Purple said:

don't forget the bit about it still being cheaper and quicker (in general) to get the private sector to do the job. Before you ask; no, I don't have the links to back that up, I've just been listening to the radio, watching the TV and reading the papers for the last 20 years.

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Perhaps you should have been listening to the Comptroller & Auditor General instead - he found that the private sector isn't cheaper.

Before the deal with Jarvis was finalised, the Department estimated that it would result in a cost saving to the State of around 6% when compared to the traditional approach. Our analysis found shortcomings in the Department’s estimation. It is likely that the final deal with Jarvis could be between 8% and 13% more expensive than conventional procurement and operation.

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daltonr said:

Would AIB, BofI, Intel, Microsoft, or any other company in Ireland create a contruction division within their own company to hire and train builders to work on their premises or etc? Of course not.

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Is maintaining infrastructure like roads, bridges, public squares part of the core activities of AIB, BOfI, Intel, MS etc?

In relation to the Corpo kicking the decision off to a local committee; it seems to have been their only choice.

This local committee is actually doing what the City Council should be doing, but there are too many strong egos with both personal and political agendas involved in City Hall, and many of them appear to have an ("I told you so") agenda to see the project fail, more than it has already.

The present Council have been making fools of themselves and the constituents since elected. The local press have also been playing to their fiddle. There is not one week that goes by that a certain councillor (with a PR background) does not appear in numerous photoshoots, most of which have no relevance to the city or council.

It's the voters choice.......next time around.