A director of a building company was jailed by a High Court judge yesterday for breaches of safety regulations on a construction site which was twice closed down in recent months on the applications of the Health and Safety Authority.
Later in the afternoon there was a sequel to the case when the judge heard a complaint that a safety inspector had been intimidated outside the court.
Mr Justice Kelly told Jason Madden the court was going to mark its disapproval of building contractors "dicing with the lives and health of employees by taking short cuts, omitting to comply with the legislation, with one object in view - the maximisation of profit".
If there was a culture abroad of non-compliance, as he had been told, it was time it came to an end, the judge said.
He ordered that Madden, a director of Kilkishen Homes Ltd, Henry Street, Limerick, which is building a number of houses at Monroe, near Nenagh, Co Tipperary, be kept in prison until Monday when the case is to come before the court again. The judge said he had not made a final decision on whether a further jail term would be appropriate.
Having been told of breaches of safety regulations at the site, the judge said this sort of conduct would not be tolerated. While it had been argued on behalf of Madden that what had happened were "sins of omission" rather than of "commission", this mattered little for all the widows and orphans of building workers and for permanently disabled building workers, he said. The result was the same.
As he had stated when the case was before the court on a previous occasion, it was only through providence that Madden was in court rather than at a funeral or at a hospital bed, the judge added.
Proceedings in relation to the Monroe site first came before the High Court in early November when the authority got an order closing the site. Some weeks later, the court allowed the site to be reopened after Madden apologised and gave undertakings there would be compliance.
On Tuesday last, the authority again obtained an order closing the site, claiming that the company had again displayed a blatant disregard for health and safety.
In an affidavit yesterday, Madden said that while he accepted there had been breaches of safety regulations and of a voluntary agreement on January 17th last to close the site, he had done everything within his power to comply with the regulations and agreement.
Madden confirmed that an employee of a subcontractor was observed working on a roof on January 17th. He said that worker had no authority to be there, was working at the location without the knowledge of the subcontractor and, arising from the incident, had been dismissed.
The driver of the teleporter on that date was also an employee of a subcontractror and was also dismissed.
In relation to a complaint about bunting close to overhead power lines, Madden said this had been in place up to January 17th. On that date ESB employees were carrying out works relating to the power lines and had lowered the bunting for ease of access and egress.
Later yesterday, after an incident outside the courtroom was related to the judge, Mr Justice Kelly said he hadn't the slightest doubt that Mr Johnny Madden, father of Jason Madden, was intimidating a safety inspector, Mr Dermot O'Brien, when he had approached the inspector outside the courtroom and had said: "You remember this face."
However, the judge said he was prepared to take a benign view of what had happened and accepted the apology of Mr Madden and his undertaking not to intimidate the inspector again.