By: Michael O’Farrell
Investigations Editor
THE directors of the firm accused of building unsafe schools paid themselves millions in wages and pension payments in recent years.
Details of these payouts emerged last night along with news that a third school, Gaelscoil Eiscir Riada in Lucan, Dublin, is affected and will open partially after the midterm break. Parents there, as with those of children in two other schools remain in the dark about what schooling arrangements will be made for their children.
Meanwhile, the increasing scale of the school safety scandal – and the Government’s failure to act sooner – has seen the Department of Education openly accused of a ‘cover-up’ dating back years.
According to accounts filed by Western Building Systems (WBS), developer Martin McCloskey and his family shared annual salary and pension entitlements worth more than £566,000 (€635,000) in 2016 and a similar amount in 2017.
Mr McCloskey, a one-time roofer from Coalisland, Co. Tyrone, owns WBS with his wife Nora. Their son Declan McCloskey is managing director while daughter Melissa Canavan is financial controller.
WBS now has an annual turnover approaching £40m and cash reserves of £21m. Almost half of this income is derived from publicly funded activities in Ireland. This week the Dáil heard claims that workers at WBS sites in Ireland had been trying to raise concerns with then education minister Ruairí Quinn as far back as 2011.
In 2014 fire safety concerns were found at a WBS school in Rush and as a result five other WBS schools were scheduled for fire safety audits. These were completed in 2016 – but were kept secret even as parents, principals and journalists sought the results under the Freedom of Information Act.
The results – which showed fire safety concerns in five schools – were only released in September 2017 after the Information Commissioner ordered the release of the files. This prompted members of the Oireachtas Education Committee to accuse the Department of Education of a cover-up that month when then education minister Richard Bruton conceded that schools had been left in the dark.
People Before Profit TD Richard Boyd Barrett said: ‘This looks like an attempt to suppress the fire safety issues affecting these schools which is unconscionable.’ Mr Bruton said he recognised that schools should have been informed of concerns relating to WBS. The Department finally lodged High Court cases against WBS on September 7 this year.
The public outcry following the 2017 Oireachtas hearing prompted officials to order another 25 fire safety audits of WBS schools.
One of these, Ardgillan Community College in Dublin, where structural problems necessitating closure, were first uncovered last week. Two others have also been closed: Tyrrelstown Educate Together and St Luke’s NS.
Meanwhile all 42 WBS schools built in the past decade will be audited for structural issues. But delays in bringing these to the fore could prove costly to the taxpayer.
According to WBS accounts, Mr and Mrs McCloskey have ‘counterindemnified’ various bonds aimed at guaranteeing the quality of their firm’s work.
For example the 2015 accounts state the pair have ‘counter-indemnified contract bonds in favour of the health service and the Department of Eduction amounting to £1,749,656’. These bonds are typically time-sensitive and expire once a project is completed and no issues are found for a set period afterwards.
The bond in relation to the Ardgillan school expired in 2009. Attempts to contact WBS were unsuccessful yesterday.
