Many local Waterford builders may be out of work soon due to a Waterford City and County Council construction tender being awarded to a Newry based company in Northern Ireland.
The issue which was raised as a concern during a recent Council meeting, after maintenance work on houses in Waterford were awarded to the Newry construction firm.
Previously these tenders were put out for a small number of houses, but now CTS Projects has the contract for the entire metropolitan area and it is hoped houses will become available immediately, once there are no structural flaws found on the property.
Speaking to Eamon builder Mick believes that Waterford City and County Councillors knew that the contractor was going out for tender with the potential of it been awarded to anyone within Europe.
The Waterford builder said that the problem with the Council was that it takes 26 weeks of a turnover in Waterford to bring vacant properties up to standard again.
"I get four weeks to do five or six houses and I do them in that, where the other 20 odd weeks went I don't know, but it's certainly not lost with the builders and at the end of the day we got the blame."
Listen to builder Mick's interview with Eamon below.
https://soundcloud.com/wlrfmwaterford/builder-mick-speaks-to-eamon-after-council-awards-tender-for-renovating-houses-to-northern-company?in=wlrfmwaterford/sets/deise-today-key-interviews-1
