'Christmas is coming,' councillor says one local contractor owed €40,000 over Tyndall College
'They still haven't been paid...'
"Christmas is coming and these people still haven't been paid," a councillor has hit out at the treatment of local contractors over the Tyndall College controversy after revealing that one person he knows is owed €40,000.
Works came to a halt on Tyndall College last January when the UK-based Carillion Construction - which had sub-contracted the works - went bust.
The Irish company, Sammon, had been sub-contracted by Carillion to carry out the building work on its behalf as part of the Public Private Partnership, but Sammon then went into liquidation in June.
The school was due to be open for the start of this school year but that has now been pushed back to December with many local contractors left out of pocket by the collapse of the two companies.
Cllr Arthur McDonald said: "One person from my area is €40,000 out of pocket. Christmas is coming and these people still haven't been paid.
"We should be more vocal and supportive of contractors out of pocket. Christmas is coming and the families need that money."
Carlow Live recently revealed that six Tyndall College temporary prefabs are costing €185,000 as local contractors remain out of pocket for works done on the ill-fated Carlow school.
Earlier this year, it was stated that the Carlow schools affected by the collapse of Sammon Construction will now be completed in December.
Appearing before the Oireachtas Finance Committee on July 26, David Corrigan – Head of Project Management at the National Development Finance Agency - confirmed that the replacement contractor, Woodvale, would undertake a survey and preliminary works during the summer in Carlow.
He said this will provide a detailed scope of works to enable the contract arrangements to be finalised for the completion of these schools by the end of December.