Council faces €50m damages ‘on its own’

ASSISTANT Government chief whip Billy Kelleher yesterday indicated that Limerick City Council will be on its own if a €50 million damages claim goes against it.

Uniform Construction Ltd is in line to get massive compensation following an arbitrator’s decision that the company was wrongly removed from the €240m Limerick Main Drainage Scheme in 2001.

The company won an €8m contract to do tunnelling work, but was sacked after falling behind with the work and going over budget.

Uniform Construction Ltd claimed the council failed to give them proper information about underground rock.

Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) Michael Noonan said that if the arbitrator’s decision is upheld in a High Court action being launched by the city council, the Government will have to step in and pay the damages.

According to Mr Noonan, a pay-out of that amount would cripple services in Limerick provided by the council and already hard-pressed rate payers in Limerick could not be expected to pick up the tab.

However, Mr Kelleher yesterday accused Mr Noonan of doublespeak and parish-pump politics by urging the State to cover Limerick City Council’s potential €50m liability.

“The Limerick East TD preaches about value for money and local authority transparency as chairman of the PAC. But when it comes to his own back yard he changes his tune.

“The fact is that Limerick City Council is guilty of all that Deputy Noonan so consistently derides on the PAC.

Huge amounts of money were paid out, the project was behind time and over budget and incompetent management wrongly fired a construction contractor after failing to advise him about rock under the Shannon,” Mr Kelleher said.

Mr Kelleher said Mr Noonan, “after all his bleating about over-budget public projects” cannot now expect the ordinary taxpayer to foot the bill.

“Of course, Deputy Noonan’s position is not unusual after all he urged the State to compensate out-of- pocket Eircom shareholders at the expense of ordinary workers,” Mr Kelleher said.

“Limerick City Council must pay its own compensation bills or else find another way to raise the costs incurred by its own stupidity,” he added.