The Health and Safety Executive for Northern Ireland (HSE NI) is facing a demand for loss of earnings from the contractor who cleared the Omagh bomb scene. An invoice for £444,000 has been sent to them by Bridge Line Demolition, which has since been banned from working at a site in Carrickfergus, County Antrim for seven months. The director of the Limavady-based company, Joseph Strawbridge, claims he has been forced to lay-off members of his staff following the dispute.
The HSE NI served a prohibition notice, which is currently under appeal, on the firm last July following allegations that asbestos was found at a part of the former Courtaulds site where Bridge Line Demolition was working as a sub-contractor. A spokeswoman for the HSE NI said a notice had been served on the company, and that they had subsequently lodged an appeal with the Office of the Industrial Tribunals and the Fair Employment Tribunal. She however refused to comment further.
Mr Strawbridge cleared the site of the Omagh bomb, which left 29 people dead and more than 200 injured in August 1998. The County Londonderry man, who won praise from the police for his deeds, also waived his fee for the work. He commented, "I feel that the HSE NI has acted in a hasty and unnecessarily officious manner and has not really understood the implications of its actions."
The economic downturn has hit the construction industry hard, with little sign of the tide turning. Building work in both the private and public sector has ground to a halt, with the property market bearing the brunt of the slump. According to the Construction Employers' Federation, 30,000 people from the industry have lost their job in the challenging financial climate. Mr Strawbridge claims that as a result of the stand-off with the HSE NI he has had to lay off six employees. He argued, "In an economic downturn such as we in Northern Ireland are experiencing, why do we have to put more people on the dole queue? Taxpayer funded government departments such as the HSE NI are supposed to be there to help, not put us out of business."
