Month: November 2009

LOSSES at the company that con- structed the €198 million Ennis by- pass last year exceeded €10 million last year.

Accounts filed with the Companies’ Office show that the losses at GAMA Construction Ireland resulted in the company having accumulated losses of €69.6 million at the end of last year.

Work on outstanding issues 1s on- going and Clare County Council recently confirmed that it paid €2.6 million to GAMA Construction this year.

Last year, GAMA admitted to the Labour Court that it had projected a loss on €45 million on the Ennis bypass project alone after underesti- mating the cost of labour and materi- als and incurring financial penalties for delays.

The company’s work in Ireland came under scrutiny in 2005 over allegations that it underpaid migrant workers.

The accounts for 2008 show that the company’s turnover slumped by 67 per cent from €39 million in 2007 to €12 million last year.

The directors state that the group had negative net assets at the end of the financial year.

The accounts point out that GAMA

is reliant on the continued financial support from its ultimate parent un- dertaking, GAMA Holdings.

“The company’s ultimate parent has agreed to support the group over the next 12 months from the date of signing of the financial statements.”

The directors confirm that they are actively tendering for a number of projects and conclude that they have “a reasonable expectation that the group has adequate resources to

continue operating for the foresee- able future having regard to trading prospects and finance available.”

Last year, the company employed 58 compared to 183 in 2007 with the company’s wage bill falling from €14m to €3.6m.

The accounts also show €750,943 in an exceptional item from the sale of an asset.

GAMA Construction Ltd is based in Santry, County Dublin.

ANNE Ae CK SIME EGR MLOBn ICO m IO COnnien

AN ADDICTION to heroin was at the root of a break-in to a hotel room in Ennis, a court has heard.

Mark Mulcaire (32), of Luifford Lodge, Ennis, admitted entering a room at the Old Ground Hotel in Ennis as a trespasser and stealing goods, on June 16 last.

Ennis District Court heard last week

that a room was entered through a ground floor window, which was left open by a guest.

A laptop and other items, whose to- tal value amounted to €1,350, were taken. The accused and another in- dividual were identified on CCTV ort oe- ke

Defending solicitor Daragh Hassett told the court that the accused hails from a respectable family in Ennis.

He said that he developed a “very nasty habit; addiction to heroin” and got sucked in.

“This was a simple but a nasty crime. It was perpetrated with the intention of taking the laptop and Sswopping it for heroin,” he said.

He said his client is now drug- free and is committed to staying off ora breae

He said that when an individual is

addicted to heroin, ““You can’t work; you can’t live and everything else you do is focused on a need and greed for WeComebue tone

‘He broke into a hotel room in his own home town and was caught red- handed,” he said.

An eight-month jail term was im- posed and a bond was fixed in the event of an appeal.

THERE was blood on the floor and walls of a room at Ennis leisure cen- tre in the immediate aftermath of an attack there, a court has heard.

A leisure centre employee told En- nis Circuit Court that she was work- ing at the poolside when she was alerted by a colleague to what was happening in the gym.

‘He said there was a fight going on

in the gym with knives. I grabbed my phone and went up,” she said.

She said she saw that a man was in- jured in the aerobics hall.

“T just saw blood. There was a good bit of blood. It was on the floor and on the walls,” she recalled.

She said that she rang gardai and attended to the victim.

Garda Saran Butler told the tri- al that he was using the gym that evening. At around 7.45pm a group

of men burst in the door.

“T could see Anthony McDonagh getting hit on the head with a wheel brace,” he said. He said that the ac- cused was holding what appeared to loLome SL E-DIU CONAN @ NDE ISe

“A lot of people in the gym started rushing for the door,’ he said. Asked by counsel for the state, Stephen Coughlan, BL, did the accused come into contact with the injured party, he replied, “Not from what I saw.”

THE victim of an assault has told a court that he was attacked with wheel braces, while he exercised at an Ennis leisure centre.

Anthony McDonagh told Ennis Circuit Court that he was training in the gym at Ennis leisure centre on the evening of July 3 last year.

He was preparing to finish up and go for a shower when he said that the door was pushed in and a number of

men arrived at the gym.

One man was holding a machete, which, he said, was swung at him. “I put up my arms. I got a wheel brace to the side of the head. I fell to the ground,” he told the court.

He said he was also cut with a knife and was struck to the face and body. “IT was ducking the machete and I just got attacked by wheel braces and stuff,” he told the jury.

Asked by counsel for the state, Stephen Coughlan, BL, what the ac-

cused did to him, he replied, “I’m not 100 per cent sure what he did. It happened so fast. He was with them.”

The court was told that Anthony McDonagh sustained head and wrist injuries and cuts to his left arm.

Under cross-examination by de- fence counsel Pat Whyms, the wit- ness said he is currently in prison. He admitted that he had carried out a revenge attack for the incident in the gym.

“What did you do?” asked Mr Whyms. Mr McDonagh replied, “I went to a barber’s and attacked him (a man other than the accused) with an axe.”

Details of the garda interview with the accused were read to the jury. He admitted going to the gym and said he went there to train.

“One of the lads handed me some- thing. I didn’t use it. It was a Stanley knife. There was a blade sticking out of the end,” he said.

Asked by gardai why he had a knife in a gym, he replied, “I don’t know. A fella gave it to me.” Asked why it was open, he said, “I don’t know.”

He told gardai that he threw away the knife after leaving the leisure centre.

Mr Whyms put it to one of the in- vestigating gardai, Mike Kelly, that his client “at all times manages to position himself away from the ac- tion.” Gda Kelly replied, “For most of it.”