Court told of falling metal ceiling studs

A claim by a director of the company operating the €62 million National Aquatic Centre of an incident in late 2004 where, he alleged, they "nearly had a fatality" at the centre, arose from an incident where a metal stud fell from the roof of the 50-metre pool near a child, the High Court heard yesterday.

Hugh O'Neill SC, for Dublin Waterworld Ltd, agreed there was no "accident" as such at the pool and that no one was actually injured.

The court was told that Liam Bohan, a director of DWL, had referred to the incident in a letter of November 9th, 2004, to a representative of Rohcon, the company which had secured the contract to build the aquatic centre.

In that letter, which was copied to CSID, Campus Stadium Ireland Development Ltd (the State company which financed the building of the pool and awarded the lease for operating the centre to DWL on April 30th, 2003), Mr Bohan wrote that despite assurances by Rohcon that the problem of falling metal studs had been addressed, one of those had fallen and missed a child by inches.

As a result of that incident, DWL had cordoned off the pool area and had removed a number of glued-on studs before reopening the area, Mr Bohan said. He had spoken to a CSID administrator about the incident and believed that administrator raised it with Rohcon.

Earlier, under cross-examination by Denis McDonald SC, for CSID, Mr Bohan said Rohcon, as part of a snag list, was to have addressed the matter of metal studs being glued in place rather than fixed into concrete. He said some of the studs had fallen and Rohcon had just glued them back in place and told DWL the problem was fixed. He agreed there was no continuing concerns regarding the studs.

Mr Justice Paul Gilligan is hearing an application by CSID for forfeiture of the lease from DWL. CSID alleges multiple breaches of the terms of the lease, including failure to pay rent and VAT. DWL is opposing the application.

CSID is also alleging that DWL transferred beneficial ownership of the lease to Limerick businessman Pat Mulcair who in turn entered into an arrangement with Dublin Waterworld Management Limited (DWML), a wholly owned subsidiary of DWL, whereby DWML would manage the National Aquatic Centre.

During cross-examination yesterday, Mr Bohan agreed the lease provided for rent to be paid to CSID and that DWL had failed to pay rent to CSID on December 31st, 2003, and December 31st 2004.

Later yesterday, David Nolan, a chartered accountant, said he had audited accounts of DWL and DWML. He said losses sustained by the company operating the aquatic centre would have been considerably greater if Mr Mulcair was not involved with it.

The court has also heard, in evidence from David Motherway of Rohcon, that Rohcon had reached an agreement in 2001 with John Moriarty, a director of DWL, to pay £750,000 to DWL as part of start-up costs for the centre. This was paid by October 2002. Rohcon needed Mr Moriarty's participation to operate it, Mr Motherway said.

Mr Motherway said a contribution of £500,000 from Rohcon to the project was part of the successful bid for the National Aquatic Centre contract made by a consortium including Rohcon. He said it was always clear that the £500,000 was available for rent payments to be made by DWL to CSID over a five-year period. However, he had learned in February 2005 that the rent was unpaid and he had raised the matter with Mr Moriarty who had said he was having issues with CSID.

The case continues today.