NI building firm faces further legal actions over alleged school defects

The Minister for Education has issued 11 further High Court actions against a Northern Irish construction company over alleged defects in the building of 40 schools in the State.

Western Building Systems (WBS), based in Omagh, Co Tyrone, is being sued by the new Minister, Norma Foley, over structural safety concerns at schools built by the firm, which came to light over the last two years. A number of consulting and engineering firms are also being sued.

It is understood the latest tranche of proceedings – issued on Friday – brings the number of separate legal actions by the Minister against WBS to 40, covering all of the affected schools, some of which had to close.

Earlier proceedings had been issued by Ms Foley’s predecessor Joe McHugh. A spokeswoman for the Department of Education said it does not comment on matters that are the subject of legal proceedings.

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WBS has insisted that the department had the final sign-off on the school buildings and is contesting the legal actions.

The department has said that permanent fire-safety improvements are not expected to be completed in all the affected schools before the end of next year. It was originally expected that the bulk of the work would have been completed this year, but a revised timeline disclosed in recent weeks means just 22 will now be ready by the end of the year.

Remediation work

Remediation work at the schools had been taking place during evenings and school holidays, but school closures as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic have allowed contractors to make more progress.

The department has said work on the remaining 18 will start in the new year. The bill for the work will run to tens of millions of euro, with €40 million having already been spent on the schools by last September. Two school buildings built by WBS are no longer being used as schools.

The department last month published an independent review into the fast-tracked “design and build” model of construction, which involves the prefabrication of some materials off-site.

Despite critics alleging a systemic flaw in the model, the review found it was increasingly the “default” model internationally, based on the experience of Australia, the UK, Norway and California.

The “desktop” review was ordered ahead of a wider independent review of the State’s design-and-build programme, which Mr McHugh previously said he did not want to prejudice the ongoing legal actions.