AN IRISH building and engineering company is constructing a series of schools in the United Arab Emirates in a deal worth €120 million.
Kildare-based Sammon Group has won a contract from the Abu Dhabi Education Council, part of the emirate’s government, to build five primary schools there over the next 10 months.
The contact is worth €120 million and is the biggest of its kind agreed by Abu Dhabi’s government with a single contractor.
It represents one-third of the education authority’s budget for this building programme.
The announcement follows the recent trade visit by Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment Batt O’Keeffe, to the the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
While he was there, Mr O’Keeffe met he met both Sammon representatives in Abu Dhabi and its education council’s director general, Dr Mugheer Khamis Al Khaili.
Sammon Group began building the schools last September, and, according to chief executive Miceál Sammon, the Kildare-based business already has experience in constructing such facilities in both Ireland and the Middle East.
Mr O’Keeffe said other Irish companies should consider Sammon’s success as an indication that there are opportunities in the Middle East, where the construction market is strong.
Jim Mongey, State development agency Enterprise Ireland’s regional director for the Middle East, confirmed the region’s building industry is performing well. The Irish industry should have “much to offer” this market, he added.
Sammon Group is a family-owned business based in Kilcock, Co Kildare, with operations in Ireland, Britain, the Middle East and north Africa.
Mr Sammon founded the business in the late 1980s and owns it along with members of his family.
Its chief financial officer, Peter Madden, who is also a director, held the same position with Arnotts.
Former Department of Education secretary general John Dennehy is a non-executive director of the group.
The group is working on a number of schools projects in the Republic, including Donabate Community College in Co Dublin, a contract it is sharing with partner P Elliott Sons and Scoil an Duinninigh in Swords, Dublin.
It recently completed schools in Cork, Kildare and Louth.
The group has also worked on commercial projects such as Clondalkin Credit Union in Dublin and the North City Hotel in Stamullen, Co Meath.
Other projects include hotels in Leitrim, Meath, Louth and elsewhere.
It also completed the joinery work on parts of the Citywest Hotel in Saggart, Co Dublin, and a number of retail fit-outs.
