Builders ‘heavily intimidated’ into paying protection money, Seanad hears

Developers and builders are being “heavily intimidated” into paying protection money for their own sites, the Seanad has heard.

Fianna Fáil Senator Aidan Davitt said on Thursday that the problem was “widespread”, and called on the Minister for Justice to discuss the issue in the Seanad.

Mr Davitt noted there was a large-scale drug seizure by gardaí in Dublin on Wednesday, and said he was concerned about a similar area following on from “some alarming conversations recently with developers and builders”.

“Quite a lot of the sites they’re [developers and builders] on and they’re working on, they are being heavily intimidated into [paying] protection money on sites. This is widespread. One builder, who would be a well-known builder and would have done State contracts on and off, a head worker that worked with him contacted me about it and I ended up talking to the guys further up the chain.

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“Then just by chance I was working with a guy that was developing out a site and he was telling me how he was dealing with these people, that were intimidating him and looking for money for fear his machinery would be burned and his workers were being intimidated. I think in this day and age that is not good enough. It seems to be wholesale in this industry.”

Mr Davitt said it would be worthwhile to have a debate on the issue and hear from the Minister for Justice on the matter.