An English company hired to demolish a number of the tower blocks in Ballymun has failed to pay more than €600,000 owed to Irish sub-contractors.
Controlled Demolition was paid nearly €6 million by Ballymun Regeneration Ltd to demolish eight of the nine tower blocks that have been knocked down so far.
After completing its work at Ballymun in August, the Yorkshire-based company went into administration, but it resumed trading within hours under new ownership.
The company was unable to say yesterday, however, when, or if, its Ballymun sub-contractors would be paid outstanding money.
The amounts owed range from just over €1,000 to nearly €300,000 in the case of scaffolding company Access and Support Ltd.
Controlled Demolition's creditors each received a letter last month from accountancy firm Ernst & Young informing them that the company had gone into administration.
However, the business and assets had been sold to another company, Linkway Manufacturing Ltd, which changed its own name to Controlled Demolition and would continue to perform existing contracts, the letter said.
The joint administrator, Simon Allport, who signed the letter, said he was "unable to indicate whether there will eventually be a surplus available for creditors".
Controlled Demolition's managing director, Darren Palin, told the UK-based Construction News that 90 per cent of the company's creditors would be paid.
Irish sub-contractors, however, fear that they are most likely to be the ones to lose out.
Ballymun Regeneration, which is owned by Dublin City Council, says it is aware of the situation but it would not be appropriate for it to intervene.
However, local Fianna Fáil TD Pat Carey said yesterday it was not acceptable that companies employed on a prestigious State project should go unpaid for their work. He is to raise the matter with Minister for Enterprise Micheál Martin.
Seven Irish sub-contractors are owed €518,486 for services provided directly to Controlled Demolition, ranging from security to scaffolding.
Two of these seven, as well as a further four contractors, are owed a total of €103,000 for works provided indirectly to Controlled Demolition through another UK-based building company.
This company, McDonnell Brothers, is itself owed an estimated €350,000 by Controlled Demolition for work on the Ballymun project. It is regarded as a victim of the situation, in common with the 11 Irish sub-contractors affected.
Orla Broderick of Stafford Tower Cranes, which is owed €74,000, said the Irish creditors had heard nothing from the company since the letter was received from Ernst & Young.
She said the fear was that English sub-contractors would be treated more favourably given that Controlled Demolition was more likely to require their services in future.
In a statement to The Irish Times yesterday, issued through a public relations firm, Mr Palin said the company's ability to pay the Irish sub-contractors "will depend on the outcome of the settlement of the final account by the client [Ballymun Regeneration]".
However, Ballymun Regeneration managing director Ciarán Murray said Controlled Demolition had already been paid almost in full.
He said the contract to demolish the eight towers had been worth between €5.8 million and €5.9 million. All of this had been paid with the exception of between €60,000 and €65,000 held "in retention".
Holding money in retention is a practice in the building industry pending final completion of all aspects of a contract.
Mr Murray said the issue of outstanding payments was one between the sub-contractors and Controlled Demolition, and Ballymun Regeneration had no role in the matter.
However, Mr Carey said the Ballymun project was described as the biggest urban regeneration scheme in Europe, and companies hired to work on it would have "taken solace" from the fact that it was State-backed.
