Building firm pays €5k to poor box for safety breaches

A Kerry construction company, involved in school and other public building contracts, has paid €5,000 into the court poor box to avoid a conviction for breach of health and safety legislation after it pleaded guilty to failing to properly fence off a site during the building of an extension at a secondary school in Killarney, Co Kerry last year.

Numerous children were in the vicinity of the site in the grounds of Killarney Community College when a Health and Safety Authority inspector paid “a routine visit” at around 11am on February 25, 2016, when school was in progress, Killarney District Court heard earlier this month.

The prosecution against Evans and Kelliher Construction Ltd, of Chestnut Grove Apartments, Sprout Lane, Milltown, Co Kerry, was brought at the suit of the DPP.