A judge told a construction company director yesterday that it was "purely providential" he was in court, rather than attending a funeral or hospital, given the company's failure to comply with safety regulations on its site, particularly with scaffolding.
Mr Justice Kelly made his remarks in the High Court after Mr Jason Madden, a director of Kilkishen Homes Ltd, had given evidence in proceedings brought by the National Authority for Occupational Safety and Health against the company over conditions at its site at Monroe, near Nenagh, Co Tipperary.
Last week, after hearing evidence from the authority, the judge said he was satisfied conditions at the site were clearly unsafe and he granted an order closing the site. The order was varied last Tuesday to allow remedial work at the site. The judge also ordered the company directors to attend court yesterday.
At yesterday's hearing, the principal director of the company, Mr Jason Madden, said he was aware of the serious situation that both the company and himself were in over health and safety regulations.
Asked about the behaviour of some employees towards a safety inspector, including alleged abusive language, he said he was not on the site when the inspector arrived.
Those employees were his father and an uncle. He apologised for what was said and he was totally sorry. There had been "no harsh words" between himself and the inspector and the company would do anything on site that the inspector wanted, Mr Madden said.
He explained the company was building 23 detached houses on the site, selling for £135,000 each. He had built one other housing scheme. He agreed with the judge they were making "a nice profit" from the development.
Asked by Mr Justice Kelly what he would say to one of the workmen's widows or children if somebody was killed on the site as a result of a failure to comply with safety regulations, Mr Madden replied: "I don't know what I'd say." The judge remarked: "Nor would you much care."
Mr Madden gave an undertaking that in future there would be compliance with the regulations.
Mr Justice Kelly said the situation was extremely serious. When the authority inspector visited the site, there had been a complete failure to comply with any of the reasonable requests made.
Negotiations to try to resolve the situation began on October 18th and proceedings were not begun until November 22nd. In the interim, the company and had led the authority "a merry dance" by doing nothing about what was required.
To make the matter even more serious, when the inspector went to the site on November 21st, he was subjected to vile abuse.
The judge adjourned the case to next Thursday when he said he expected to be told that all the remedial work had been completed.