DÁIL QUESTION Deputy John O’Mahony.
Achill sub-contractor owed €250,000 by Cordil
Dooniver Plant Hire forced to lay off workers due to Cordil’s inability to pay
Anton McNulty
AN ACHILL subcontractor who has been waiting for payment from Cordil Construction since last February fears he will go out of business unless he gets the money he is owed.
Earlier this month, Cordil Construction, which is based in Galway, shut down all its building sites in a bid to secure its future. The company stated that it is owed ‘substantial monies’ from various contracts for Government departments. As such, it has been forced to close its sites for at least two weeks, it said.
St Colman’s stalled
Cordil is working on several sites in Mayo, including the €5 million St Colman’s Care Centre project in Achill, which received €3 million in funding from the HSE last year. Eugene Doran, owner of Dooniver Plant Hire, which is carrying out the ground works on the site, told The Mayo News that he is owed €250,000 by Cordil and he has not been paid since last February.
Work on the site began in earnest in the first week in January. However, no work has taken place there since the end of February, when Cordil informed Doran that it was unable to pay him. Since then, the HSE has fenced off the site and changed the gates and locks.
Cheque bounced
Doran first realised there were problems with Cordil when a cheque bounced. “My saga with Cordil began in February when I was issued with a cheque which was returned unpaid. We eventually got the value for the cheque but a week later when we got a cheque, a Cordil Director requested us not to present the cheque for payment because they did not have the money.
“We suspended work immediately and little or no work has gone ahead since. We are owed €250,000 and this is putting pressure on us to survive. We had 14 lads on site in January and February but we have had to let ten lads go. There’s money owed to me and I can’t get it … I had no choice but to let them go,” he explained.
While up to 90 per cent of the groundwork has been completed on the site, Doran’s company was also given the contract to supply concrete for shuttering, and this was to take another ten weeks to complete.
Future uncertain
This is the first contract Dooniver Plant Hire has had with Cordil. Doran explained that Cordil had a reputation for being slow payers as far as sub-contractors were concerned, and that he did not know they were in trouble. He said he does not know where he stands – or if work will begin again on site.
“We don’t know what is happening at this stage … It depends on what happens with Cordil. If they don’t trade again, it will open up another chapter.”
When contacted by The Mayo News about the situation on the St Colman’s site, the HSE responded by saying their position was outlined in a statement by Deputy John Perry following a Dáil question by Deputy John O’Mahony.
“I have been informed that, currently, both the executive and the contractor are engaged in a confidential conciliation process to which both parties are bound and, as a consequence, the executive cannot comment on the specifics of each project. The HSE is committed to working within the conciliation process,” Deputy Perry said.
A spokesperson for St Colman’s Care Centre told The Mayo News that they did not wish to comment on the project at this time.
