North Tipp TD Michael Lowry gave a cautious welcome to commitments from Bothar Hibernian last Friday, saying that they had reached an agreement with RAC Éire to pay all their subcontractors before the Christmas.
The Independent deputy had strongly backed local contractors from the Lower Ormond Area who have been left severely out of pocket as a result of non payment of invoices of a company subcontracting work on the M7 Limerick to Nenagh Road.
The Portuguese based company RAC Eire owes at least 4.5 million euro to local contractors. Contractors, some of whom have not been paid for up to six months, have begun to blockade work on the new road over the last few weeks.
The Deputy said that he had to work directly with all parties including the Department of Transport, the NRA and project overseers, and Limerick County Council to bring a resolution to this dispute over the last three months.
Lowry said that the situation would only be fully resolved once the contractors, affected, had money actually paid into their accounts, as there had been so many broken promises before.
Speaking to Thurles.Info the Deputy said;
“This fiasco calls into question the methods and lack of controls applied to subcontracting rules in this area. I am disappointed and concerned that a situation has been allowed to develop over the course of the last few months whereby local Tipperary contractors, who have entered into their contracts in good faith, are being made to bear the brunt of payment disputes. I fully understand that the contracts concerned are between RAC Eire and local contractors, if there is any impropriety involved in the delay of this payments to the local businesses, the full force of the government and the law should be brought to bear on the parties concerned. Situations like this should not be allowed to arise as they cause much fear and trepidation to the local enterprises involved and undermine public confidence in a project of major importance to North Tipperary”.
In a press statement issued on the 28th November last by Bohar Hibernian the company’s project manager Mr Nuno Teixeira stated;
“There is currently a dispute at the site of the N7 Nenagh to Limerick HQDC works at Birdhill. The dispute is between RAC EIRE Partnership, and a number of their subcontractors who are overdue payments for work done. RAC EIRE Partnership is a subcontractor of Bothar Hibernian N7 JV. There is no dispute between these RAC EIRE subcontractors and Bothar Hibernian N7 JV. Bothar Hibernian N7 JV has been actively working to resolve the situation and we have now achieved the terms of an agreement in which RAC EIRE have committed to paying all their subcontractors before Christmas. Payment will be in full or substantially in full. We feel that at this time, as an intermediary, it would not be appropriate to make any further comment”.
Has this situation been updated as we are still waiting to be paid by RAC Eire .
I would appreciate any help in resolving this .
Brid
GPT Limerick
Hi Brid,
I am not sure. The silence has lead me to believe that some agreement was reached.