THE BUILDING subcontractor at the centre of a dispute at the site of the proposed Thornton Hall prison has ceased trading with the loss of up to 90 jobs.
Breffni Plant Hire ceased trading this week and has set a creditors’ meeting for July 22nd at the Maldron Hotel in Portlaoise.
The company is in dispute with larger construction group Siac over the final cost of the construction of a 1.8km access road to the Thornton Hall site in Co Dublin.
Breffni says the work cost close to €1.5 million, while Siac argues that it cost about €500,000 less than that figure.
The Irish Prison Service hired Siac last year to build an access road, underpass, traffic junction and complete landscaping at the site.
Siac, one of the Republic’s biggest players in the industry, hired Breffni to build the access road, which the main contractor itself designed.
Breffni says the original figure agreed was €690,000, but that this needed to be increased when Siac had to change the design of the road, a move which required more work and materials.
The smaller company’s final estimate of the cost was €1.48 million. However, Siac disputed this, and said the work would cost about €975,000.
It is understood Siac offered Breffni the chance to bring the issue to a mediation process operated by the Construction Industry Federation, but the subcontractor refused.
The two sides met last Friday, when the main contractor was preparing to go to court to seek an injunction to halt a picket at the Thornton Hall site.
Breffni received over €700,000 from the main contractor, and was to receive a further €150,000, following the meeting at the weekend. But Breffni ceased trading on Monday, and that payment did not go through.
The subcontractor said Siac effectively stopped those payments on Monday.
However, the main contractor understood Breffni was not going to carry out some work agreed on Friday because it moved plant off the site over the weekend.
Breffni was previously involved in a dispute with Bowen Construction over the cost of a multi-storey car park at Dublin Airport.
The company says that increasingly, main contractors are underestimating the cost of work to win contracts from State organisations, and are then attempting to squeeze sub contractors to bring the work in on budget.
Breffni moved plant and equipment off a number of its sites yesterday and its directors say they are trying to facilitate the return of goods and materials to their own creditors.
