On Thursday staff in the Health and Safety Authority (HSA) could hardly believe their eyes. Somebody glanced across the Dublin rooftops towards Zoe Development's site at Charlotte's Quay and saw cranes in action and materials being hoisted to the top of the apartment blocks, where Mr James Masterson (24) had died 11 days earlier. An inspector was hurriedly despatched to ensure that the company was carrying out nothing beyond essential remedial work specified by the High Court when it ordered all other work to stop on the site on November 10th. At that time a HSA inspector, Mr Vincent McGauran, described the company's safety record over the past seven years as one of "shocking heedlessness".

Yesterday afternoon, the HSA summoned Mr Liam Carroll, managing director of Zoe, to its offices in Hogan Place to see what measures he was putting in place at Charlotte's Quay to prevent further death or serious injury. Meanwhile HSA inspectors were carrying out a "blitz" on Zoe's other sites around the city.

Mr Carroll emerged expressionless from the HSA two hours later. Asked if he had anything to say about the company's appalling safety record over the past seven years, he replied laconically: "We are committed to improving our sites", before leaving with a team of advisers.

Normally, the HSA adopts a co-operative approach towards employers and their safety problems. As the HSA development officer, Ms Sylvia Woods, put it: "We're not policemen, we're there to help people."

But she admitted that "Zoe is a bit beyond the pale" and the HSA seems to have adjusted its methods accordingly.

The authority is expected to prepare a file for the Chief State Solicitor's Office over the death of Mr Masterson. This will be the third time the HSA has had to investigate a death on Zoe sites and the sixth time it has had to consider charging the company with indictable offences.

As one of the company's directors, Mr David Torpey, admitted to The Irish Times last week the company's safety record makes "chilling" reading.

On January 23rd, 1990 a worker on one of its sites at Grove Road, Rathmines, was crushed to death when a crane collapsed on him. The company was subsequently found guilty of five major breaches of the safety regulations and fined £1,400.

On April 6th, 1994, a labourer fell 30 feet at a Zoe site in Bride Street, Dublin, and suffered multiple injuries to his pelvis, legs, arms and rib cage. The company was found guilty of three major breaches of the safety regulations and fined £1,250. On June 8th, 1994, a worker was trapped under steel shuttering when the 12 feet high wall he was walking on collapsed at a site on the corner of Dorset Street and Blessington Street, in Dublin. Four convictions were obtained against Zoe by the HSA and the company was fined £2,000. On March 25th, 1995 two workers were buried under rubble and seriously injured at a Zoe site at South Earl Street and Meath Street. A file has been sent to the Chief State Solicitor's Office.

On March 7th, 1996, a worker died after falling from scaffolding at a Zoe site in Parnell Street, Dublin. Again, a file has been sent to the Chief State Solicitor's office. Now the 16 storey apartment tower being erected at Charlotte's Quay, overlooking the Liffey is becoming a landmark for all the wrong reasons. It has become a symbol for the unacceptable face of the building boom.

The family of Mr James Masterson is devastated by his death. One of a family of seven children, he was the mainstay of his father Donal, a small farmer in Geesala, Co Mayo. James's sister, Maureen, says her father is considering selling the farm because her brother will no longer be around to help him.

If the company should be found guilty of breaching the safety laws in the case of Mr Masterson, the family can pursue a civil suit, but it will not bring him back. If the family is successful, ironically the company will face far less serious damages than if the dead man had only been injured and was entitled to compensation for his disability.

Zoe Developments, a private company, is the largest residential builder in Dublin and believed to be one of the State's more profitable construction firms. On Monday it will be told if the HSA is satisfied it has done enough to recommend lifting the High Court order on Charlotte's Quay.