Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

In 2011, several building workers took the trouble to join the Labour Party, specifically the branch of former Deputy Ruairí Quinn. For the next three or four years, they tried to impress on him the problems in the school buildings programme and, specifically, companies such as Western Building Systems. The workers described it as the "Wild West" and stated that some people on sites did not have a clue what they were doing, as well as highlighting that the required ties had not been installed. We are now discovering seven or eight years later that those ties are the most basic component in ensuring a wall stays together and does not fall down. Their claims were ignored by the former Deputy, Ruairí Quinn, and Deputy Alan Kelly. Prompted by the workers, I raised the matter in September of last year at which stage the then Minister for Education and Skills, Deputy Bruton, who is sitting beside the Tánaiste, stated that he was confident that the problems identified in the schools were not widespread.

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