The High Court has ordered the largest builder of apartments in Dublin, Zoe Developments, to stop all work on a site where a man was killed in an accident last week.
Mr Justice Kelly granted the order yesterday after hearing that the company had shown "shocking heedlessness" towards safety regulations on the site.
After hearing the evidence the judge said the company had an appalling safety record over a number of years, and the risk to safety on the Dublin site was so serious that work on it should stop immediately.
A Health and Safety Authority inspector, Mr Vincent McGauran, told the court that he visited the company's site at Charlotte's Quay at Ringsend, following the death of Mr James Masterson.
Mr Masterson (24), from Mayo, died after falling through plastic sheeting on the top floor of one of the apartment blocks on the site. He was the third person to die on a Zoe site since 1991.
Mr McGauran said the company had consistently ignored or flouted safety regulations. It had been convicted of criminal offences contrary to the Regulations and the Act on 12 occasions.
Granting the interim order sought by the authority, Mr Justice Kelly said he would review it next Monday.
Meanwhile a sister of the dead man, Ms Maureen Masterson, said last night that the family had still received no information from the company, or the Health and Safety Authority, on how her brother had died. "We don't know what happened," she said. "We only know what we've read in the newspapers."
In a brief statement last night, Zoe Developments said that work would be carried out on its Charlotte's Quay site under strict guidance from safety consultants.
The statement said it would be inviting the Health and Safety Authority to meet company representatives on site within the next few days.
A walkout planned by SIPTU for 10 Zoe sites in Dublin yesterday was called off after the company agreed to introduce a series of emergency measures on its sites over the weekend.
Court report: page 8
