A 71-year-old blocklayer fell to his death in 1996 on a Zoe Developments site in Dublin city centre because plasterers might have earlier removed vital supports which caused scaffolding to collapse.
Mr Frank Burns, who was working as a subcontractor, was laying blocks at a development at the junction of Gardiner Street and Parnell Street on March 7th, 1996.
Zoe Developments Ltd, the State's largest apartment builders, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to failing to take reasonable steps to ensure that the place of work was safe and without risk. Judge Frank O'Donnell adjourned sentencing to June 23rd next.
Mr David Torpey, a director of the company, said nobody knew that Mr Burns was 71. "He was a gentleman, and such a very fit, lively man who was so good at his work that younger men could not keep up with him."
Mr John Harrington, an inspector with the Health and Safety Authority, told Mr Edward Comyn SC (with Mr Fergal Foley), prosecuting, that Mr Burns was laying blocks on a curved section of the building when the scaffolding collapsed due to the earlier removal of ledgers which were necessary to support it.
He said it appeared that plasterers might have removed the ledgers that morning to carry out their work.
Mr Harrington agreed with Mr Denis Vaughan Buckley SC, defending, that the plasterers had not brought the removal of the ledgers to the attention of the site foreman.
Mr Vaughan Buckley submitted there was no evidence that the ledgers had been missing for several days, and they could have been removed a short time before the accident. He said it was accepted that the scaffolding had been erected too close to the building. Although it was erected by a reputable company, the responsibility for safety lay with Zoe Developments.