Sammon group announces liquidation
Concerns over the completion of the new Eureka school building in Kells and major job losses across the county, have been expressed after the building company, Sammon Group, announced its liquidation on Tuesday.
The company has blamed the collapse of UK construction and services giant Carillion for its fail.
Deputy Thomas Byrne has called ont he Minister for Education to set out a detailed plan to ensure there are no unnecessary delays in completing the school building projects.
“I want to extend my solidarity to the 200 workers at Sammon Group. This is an extremely distressing time for them and today’s news comes after weeks of uncertainty surrounding the future of their jobs following the collapse of UK construction and services giant Carillion," he said.
The company had been building five schools, including Eureka, and one college as part of a public private partnership led by Carillion, when the UK company collapsed earlier this year.
In a statement, Sammon CEO Miceál Sammon said the collapse of Carillion and the sudden suspension of work on six projects had placed the company in "a perfect storm".
He said the company had made every effort since then to get the contract restarted in the interests of their business, their contractors and the school communities.
He said a delay in decisions around these projects had frustrated the company's strategy to exit examinership and ultimately placed the company in an irrecoverable position.
The Department of Education has said the liquidation of Sammon had added additional complexity to the process of confirming the arrangements for completion of the five schools and one college of further education in Bray, Meath and Carlow that were effected by the collapse of Carillion.
It said the Project Funders anticipated that the pathway forward to completion of the schools would become clearer within the next fortnight.
It said it was still the case that the schools closest to completion remain best positioned to be finished for September and that all efforts were being made to achieve this.
Deputy Byrne said there are now concerns that these projects could be delayed indefinitely as a result of Sammon’s liquidation.
"This whole saga also highlights the need for a better system to ensure subcontractors get paid for the work they have carried out on State funded projects."
“Minister Bruton needs to set out what his Department is doing to get these projects back on track. These schools are badly needed and cannot be allowed to be delayed indefinitely. It’s nearly six months since the collapse of Carillion. While we all hoped that the Sammon Group could get through this crisis intact, Minister Bruton should have been preparing contingency plans nonetheless,” concluded Deputy Byrne.