Sir, - This month saw yet another once-successful construction company go into liquidation. Irishenco has been around since 1940 but its obituary will be just a few mentions in the news and a couple of articles in the papers. In time, people will forget the name of the company who built the East and Westlink bridges and indeed who were the pioneers in building many of the power stations dotted around the country. The obvious question is: how can this happen when the building industry is booming? The answer is very simple: below-cost pricing.
If a grocery shop sold its products for less than the cost price, they could be prosecuted but pricing a job for less than it will take to complete it is the only way to win contracts in civil engineer.
This practice appears to be encouraged by the Government which is more concerned with keeping the consumer price index at a level that will reflect positively on its members. Their concern for the construction industry and the highly-skilled workforce that gives us an infrastructure to make the Celtic tiger a reality, seems to be relative to whether or not an election is imminent. Minister Mary Harney did not issue any response to the demise of Irishenco and the loss of approximately 260 jobs. There is obviously no immediate election in the offing.
The unions that represent these highly-skilled, dedicated and now unemployed people have expressed their concern for their members. On the other hand, the Construction Industry Federation does not appear to be at all concerned, and is not taking any measures to ensure that this does not happen to other construction companies.
The reality of the situation is that, unless the CIF and the Government introduce legislation that prevents companies from bidding for jobs at below cost price, the forebodings for the industry are dire and Irishenco will most certainly not be the last construction company to bite the dust. - Yours, etc., Deirdre O'Keeffe,
Harold's Cross, Dublin 6.