Cork GAA paid €4.4 million to settle electrical payment dispute

Details of the settlement were provided to Cork club delegates 

A general view of Pairc Ui Chaoimh 

€4.4 million was the total sum paid by Cork GAA to settle a payment dispute with an electrical contractor involved in the Páirc Uí Chaoimh rebuild.

Details of the €4.4m settlement with One Complete Solution Ltd were provided to Cork club delegates during the section of Tuesday’s county board meeting held in-camera.

OCS were initially paid €7m for the electrical work they were commissioned to carry out during the stadium redevelopment in the middle of the last decade. Confirmation of the settlement figure brings the total paid by Cork GAA to OCS to approximately €11.5m.

In 2020, it was reported that OCS were seeking an additional €1m in payments, on top of the €7m they had already been paid. This additional claim resulted in Cork GAA taking legal action.

At last month’s Cork convention, county board treasurer Diarmuid Gowen, in response to queries from the floor, said OCS were “looking for a lot more” than the reported €1m figure.

It has now emerged that OCS sought an additional €7m, on top of the €7m they were initially paid. The final settlement sum came in at €2.6m below that figure.

Although the settlement was reached early last year, Cork club delegates were not told of any settlement payment until repeated questioning from Freemount delegate John O’Flynn during last month’s convention.

O’Flynn queried why the 2022 Cork GAA accounts showed an additional cost of €2,499,194 for Páirc Uí Chaoimh in the financial year up to September 30. In response to O’Flynn’s questioning, the board revealed that the €2.5m figure related to the settlement with OCS.

In February 2019, an extensive audit of county board accounts by stadium board members Michael O’Flynn and Tom Gray put the estimated cost of the stadium redevelopment at €95.8m. The most up-to-date figure is now in excess of €100m.

Debt arising from the rebuild currently stands at €32m. The 2022 Cork GAA accounts show €21,056,000 is owed to Bank of Ireland, while a further €11m is being repaid to Croke Park.

The OCS settlement does not bring the curtain down on the fallout from the Páirc Uí Chaoimh rebuild given Cork GAA filed a High Court action last September against the construction firm behind the stadium redevelopment.

The county board, in September, lodged papers against both John Sisk and Son, the builders on the project, and Malachy Walsh and Co, the engineering consultancy which managed the redevelopment.

The Sunday Times reported that negligence had been cited as the cause of action in the proceedings.