Sir, – In support of David McWilliams’s suggestion for the Irish Government to consider engaging with Chinese companies to assist building our railways noted that some of our motorways have been built by Spanish and Turkish companies. He acknowledged there “were some problems in complying with Irish standards, but nothing that was not overcome”.
In another case, 180 workers employed by a consortium of Portuguese companies to build the Limerick-Nenagh motorway between 2007 and 2009 were subsequently found by the labour inspectorate to have been underpaid by €3 million. The workers and their solicitor spent 13 years seeking to recoup the underpayments through the Irish legal system.
The workers’ legal quest took so long because, as noted by the Court of Appeal in 2019, the companies had “abused the courts process” and their “conduct had been designed to delay and frustrate the payment of any sums”.