Mr. Niall Reynolds:

I have a company called Rapid Response Security, which does the security at Eureka Secondary School, Kells, County Meath. We were left short from approximately October. We kept pestering them to get the money from them and we heard every excuse under the sun. Eventually, at Christmas, we said we would pull the security from the site, and we were paid one invoice. After Christmas we went after them again and we were paid a second invoice. We are still owed money to the tune of €16,000. That is our working capital, and it puts a strain on us and on our relationship with the banks. It means that for us to take on work now, we have to pay upfront. All our men were paid at Christmas. Now it means we cannot take on work because our working capital is with Miceál Sammon and company. We do not have it anymore.

As a result, I started to ring other subcontractors. I realised my predicament was not as bad as others. When one rings a company now, one rings the man on site, which might turn out to be the husband. The phone will ring and then go through to a secretary, who is his wife. If one wants to get the real story, talk to the wives and one will hear it. The wife will say not to tell the husband what she said. In one instance, a woman confided in me she had three children, and all the money they had from christenings and communions and so on was in the credit union, and they had to take the money out to prepare one of the sons for confirmation two months ago. The husband supplied and is owed close to €100,000 because of this debacle with Sammon. That is one example. To say these people are close to suicide is an understatement. We have tried to get this across to Deputies and Ministers. I sat before certain Deputies and Ministers and asked if they understood that from their front door, half a mile away, there were people in distress. I asked if they had talked to them or their wives and the answer was "No". On the following evening, I saw them parading on the television in Paris or somewhere else. These are the people we elected to represent us. There was no leadership coming from them.