A Turkish company has tendered to build the new gas-fired power station for Viridian at Huntstown, Co Dublin, for 36 per cent less than the nearest bid from an Irish firm. Gamma Construction has offered to fulfill the civil engineering contract on Huntstown for £10,317,398 (€13,100,393).
The nearest Irish bid was from P J Walls (Civil) Limited for £13,985,138. P J Walls has a long track record of power station building in the Republic and was involved in the construction of the ESB plant at Poolbeg and the Edenderry peat-fired station for Fortum. Another major Irish civil engineering firm, Ascon, had the third-lowest tender at £16,300,000. With wages normally making up about 40 per cent of the cost of a civil engineering project, there are widespread fears in the construction industry that the Turkish bid could be the first of many from companies outside the EU with low wage economies. According to a recent wage survey by the Federation of European Employers, the basic Turkish rate for general operatives in construction is £1.05p an hour, compared with £8.85p in Ireland.
The spectre of a Turkish bid undercutting Irish tenders comes at a time of mounting tension in the construction industry. The Dublin Alliance of General Construction Operatives (DAGCO) is holding mass meetings in Dublin and Limerick next week over the growing use of agency workers.
DAGCO chairman Mr Paul Hansard said last night the Turkish company "may even pay lower than the agency rates. Nobody consulted us about the decision to allow companies outside the EU to tender for contracts. We either have social partnership or we don't. This could be the end of the construction industry in this country".
Viridian signed a £130 million contract with Siemens for the 340 Mw power station last year. Siemen's has still to make a decision on who will get the contract. However a Construction Industry Federation spokesman last night said it would expect whoever won the contract "to pay the rate for the job".
Gamma Construction is based in Ankara but has an office in Sandymount, Dublin.
