Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

Over 1,000 pupils have no school to go to. Parents are in the situation of scrambling to come up with a plan for how to take care of their children. With 42 schools now to be inspected, this seems to be the tip of the iceberg. How many more pupils are being taught in schools with an 80% chance of a wall falling down in the event of a storm? By the end of the mid-term break, there could be tens of thousands of pupils facing that nightmare situation.

This is a consequence of the race to the bottom model in the construction industry, a model of putting profits before people's lives, in this case the lives of children. This is a model which resulted in London Grenfell and brought us Priory Hall, Longboat Quay and this crisis. It is a model that has to end. It is a model in which the Government and the State have been active participants. In 2009, the then Minister for Education and Skills, Batt O'Keeffe, boasted about the reduction of 30% in prices achieved for the construction of schools. How exactly did he think that would be achieved? It was achieved by awarding lowest price contractors who were involved in cutting corners. Western Building Systems clearly epitomised what that model meant. It is known within the industry as a bottom feeder and horror stories abound about its practices. One need just look at its books. It has 45 staff yet it built 25 schools in the past three and a half years. It is part of a model of subcontracting and bogus self-employment.

The Government can respond that this is the fault of the builders’ party, Fianna Fáil. However, the Government has wilfully ignored the evidence before it of unsafe practices. These issues have been repeatedly raised with the Department, including under the Tánaiste’s watch, by trade unionists. In today’s Irish ExaminerMichael Clifford outlined how problems with fire standards in the Educate Together school in Rush-Lusk were uncovered in 2014 with an architect concluding the building could collapse in 20 minutes. Michael Clifford stated:

The matter was kept quiet... Joining dots might have opened a wider problem. Everybody left well [enough] alone.

A year later a journalist, Fiachra Ó Cionnaith, wrote about it and after that, for the best part of the year, the results were kept secret. Why were they kept secret? Most importantly, why did the Department of Education and Skills pay an extra €60 million to this company after which these matters had become public?

Yesterday, the Taoiseach proudly said that this is not a case of public private partnerships. However, it is the same essential logic with the design-build contracts in operation. When one has a private company allowed to design, to build and employ the certifier for essential public buildings, it is a recipe for the disasters like we have in this case. It is an invitation to cut corners, yet the Government continues to use these contracts. Does the Tánaiste agree these contracts should be ended? Does he agree that the received wisdom of relying on private for-profit companies to deliver essential State infrastructure has decisively been undermined and that we need a public construction company which will put safety, workers’ rights and quality first?

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