MACHINERY subcontractors, who claim they have not been paid since May after completing work on a €5 million public road scheme, yesterday staged an early morning blockade of the main Dingle-Tralee road in Co Kerry.
Labourers from eastern Europe have also not been paid and say they are depending on local colleagues to lend them money for food. Two Romanian men say they can no longer pay rent on their accommodation nor can they afford to pay the fare home.
The protesters were joined by a number of politicians calling for a change in how public projects are awarded to ensure that everybody “down the chain is properly paid”.
At present the main contractor gets the money even though much of the work may be carried out by layers of subcontractors. The eight contractors on the 4.2km stretch of roadway on the N86 improvement scheme, between Annascaul and Gortbreagoge, say they are owed €167,000 and they need to pay their creditors.
“This is a council-NRA project, funded by the EU and we’ll go all the way to Brussels to highlight what has happened here,” said spokesman Jimmy O’Dwyer.
After gardaí intervened, the protesters moved to Annascaul to the works site in the village.
A statement yesterday by the main contractor, Noel Regan Sons Plant Hire, said the protesters were not its employees nor its subcontractors, but were the responsibility of another subcontractor.
“The present protest at the site arises out of the fact that a subcontractor, BM Groundworks Limited, engaged to carry out certain earthworks has not paid its own subcontractors or, to some extent, its own employees,” the statement said. “It is those sub-subcontractors and employees who are engaged in the protest.”
Noel Regan Sons had “at all times remunerated BM Groundworks Ltd” in accordance with the terms of the contract.
However a spokesman for BM Groundworks in Derry yesterday said it had not been paid what it was owed by Noel Regan Sons and this dispute had been ongoing since June.
“We are in dispute over payment with the principal contractor,” the spokesman said. “We are doing our utmost to resolve the situation and we are keeping the subcontractors fully informed.”
Kerry TD Michael Healy-Rae, who was at the protest, said the Government and the National Roads Authority had to change the way payments were made.