Developer ordered to stop work after fatal accident

The Health and Safety Authority has issued two prohibition notices to Zoe Developments, stopping work on their site in Ringsend…

The Health and Safety Authority has issued two prohibition notices to Zoe Developments, stopping work on their site in Ringsend, Dublin, following a fatal accident earlier this week. However, work on two adjoining Zoe apartment blocks was continuing late yesterday.

The Dublin building trade unions' group has called on its members to stop work on Zoe Development sites throughout Dublin on Monday in protest at unsafe conditions. The company is the largest residential developer in the city and has constructed over 3,000 apartments since 1988 in 50 different schemes.

The decision to call the stoppage follows the death of a Mayo man, Mr James Masterson (24), at a Zoe development site on Charlotte Quay, Ringsend, last Monday. According to the Health and Safety Authority, this is the third death on a Zoe-managed site since 1991. Over the same period, the authority has successfully prosecuted the company on 12 occasions for serious breaches of the safety regulations.

Two more prosecutions are pending, a spokesman for the authority said. The board of the authority is expected to consider Zoe's safety record when it meets this morning.

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SIPTU construction branch secretary, Mr Eric Fleming, who is also secretary of the Dublin building trade unions' group, said yesterday that "the authority has been frustrated by Zoe and other companies. At the same time it must accept that it has failed to protect workers on building sites.

"There is growing anger among building workers and there is a realisation that a lot of the culprits are happy to pay fines, without improving safety conditions."

Mr Fleming said that in his opinion Zoe was simply the worst of a large number of developers who treated safety as "a cost to be avoided as far as possible. Some of the better builders are falling behind because of pressure from competitors cutting corners."

He said Zoe sites would be picketed on Monday morning and the seven unions in the group would be mounting a picket of the company's headquarters in Portobello.

A director of Zoe Developments, Mr David Torpey, said last night that it was not possible to comment at this stage. The managing director of the company, Mr Liam Carroll, was attending the funeral of Mr Masterson "and at the moment all our thoughts are with James and his family".

Mr Torpey said the company would be making a comprehensive statement when it had time to consult with its solicitor and consider the statement made by the Health and Safety Authority to the press. "When you look at the press statement it's chilling, but we have to give a considered response.

"We employ external safety consultants on the site. They are a reputable company and we would be guided by them," he said, adding: "Safety is given priority in our company."