The father of a 21-year-old man who died after a fall on a building site today alleged his son's work colleagues had wanted to change the location of the accident to a farm.
Noel Briody from Corduff, Ballinagh, Co Cavan died at Dublin's Beaumont Hospital on November 23rd, 2002 from severe head injuries after falling from the first floor of a house three days earlier.
His father, Thomas Briody, told an inquest today that when he was at the hospital, Paul Hyland, the son of the man employing Mr Briody and his work colleague, had mentioned changing the location of the accident.
He claimed: "Paul Hyland said to me `We don't want to get Noel into trouble as he is drawing the dole. We were considering moving the accident from a building site to a farm'."
Mr Briody then told the Dublin City Coroner's Court that Michael Hyland snr, who was employing the 21-year-old at the time of the accident, spoke to him as the body of his son was being brought past him to the morgue.
"He came over to me, he (Michael Hyland snr) said 'This is terrible, what story are we going to tell for this'," Mr Briody said. However, he told the court Mr Hyland did not clarify exactly what he meant.
Paul Hyland, who drove Mr Briody to the hospital in Navan after the accident, replied: "I am sorry to have to say this but Noel's father has told a lie about me. He said that I said to him I don't want to get Noel into trouble as he is on the dole. He said I said that, which is untrue.
"I didn't know Noel was on the dole." Mr Hyland, who also worked with the deceased, told the court he had already filled out hospital administration forms stating that Mr Briody had fallen at work.
The court heard that Mr Briody was working for Michael Hyland snr, who was a contractor, and was erecting a timber framed house from Keenan Timber Frames in Co Louth at a site in Kildalkey, Co Meath.
The jury, which passed a verdict of accidental death, said work should not have resumed on the house until the investigation into Mr Briody's death was fully investigated.
The jury also raised safety issues in relation to the work at the site and referred the matter to the Health and Safety Authority, which was also in court.
On November 20th, 2002 the men were installing a timber frame floor panel with a crane into the first floor of the house when Mr Briody fell. Paul Hyland told the inquest that Mr Briody stepped off a secure panel onto the edge of a triple piece of wood on the timber frame they were installing, and it collapsed as the nails holding it bent.
Mr Hyland said it should not have given way. The court heard that a shoe support for that particular piece of timber had not come with the house kit, and the builders were about to put a prop support underneath that piece of the panel before the accident.
The coroner, Dr Brian Farrell, said: "Because it wasn't properly secured it simply gave way and he fell."
Mr Briody's work colleagues told the court that after the fall he was unconscious and there was a spot of blood on his head "the size of a fifty pence piece".
When he regained consciousness his speech was slurred. Mr Hyland said that after he drove him to a hospital in Navan, he was not seen for an hour and a half.
He said that Mr Briody was getting sick and coughing up blood, and he had difficulty keeping him awake in the warm hospital reception and wheeled him around the car park in a wheelchair to try to keep him conscious.
He said that he informed the reception that Mr Briody had taken a bad fall and may have internal bleeding. "I went up to the glass reception a second time and told her Noel was spitting up blood. She said to me `we are full in here where do you want me to put him'," Mr Hyland said.
Mr Briody was later transferred to Beaumont Hospital for treatment but despite surgery he died three-days later on November 23rd, 2002 with severe head injuries, including a fractured skull.