Turkish concern wins Irish power station contract

Turkish-based Gamma Construction has won the civil engineering contract from Siemens to build a 340 Mw gas-fired power station at Huntstown, Co Dublin, sources close to the negotiations say.

Gamma put in a tender 36 per cent below its nearest Irish rival P J Walls. Although no comment was available from Siemens or Gamma Construction yesterday, the managing director of P J Walls (Civil) Ltd, Mr Eamon Corcoran, confirmed he had been told the contract was awarded to Gamma last Friday.

"That such a major contract has gone outside the EU at far below the prices quoted by Irish contractors has huge implications for the sector," he said.

He confirmed figures published in The Irish Times last week which showed P J Walls had offered to build the plant for £13,985,138 (€17,757,462). The Gamma bid was £10,317,398. The next lowest bid was from Ascon at £16,300,000.

With 40 per cent of construction costs being determined by wage rates, there is a widespread belief that the Turkish bid is based on hourly rates which are only 10 per cent of those applying in the Republic.

The Irish Congress of Trade Unions has sought an urgent meeting with the Department of the Taoiseach to discuss the growing problem of agency workers in the construction industry. One senior ICTU source said Congress was not opposed to employing foreign workers but they had to be paid the rate for the job. A spokesman for the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, said the construction industry registered agreement required that any workers from abroad were paid the full rate.

However, SIPTU official Mr Mick Finnegan said there was widespread evidence of noncompliance. He produced details of five workers on site at Dublin City University - four of them Brazilian and one Irish - who were earning between £6 and £7 an hour.

The Dublin Alliance of General Construction Operatives has called a meeting for tomorrow at Liberty Hall to discuss industrial action to stop the spread of agency workers. Mr Finnegan said news of the Huntstown award "adds to the anger already out there over agencies bringing in people to be exploited".

"This is not about freedom of movement of labour; it's another way of keeping wages down. There is a lot of talk about labour shortages but all the big sites have `no vacancy' signs outside."

The Construction Industry Federation also expressed concerns about the award of the contract to Gamma. However, a spokesman rejected SIPTU claims about agency workers.