Contract for Navan town park goes north of border

The head of a Navan-based surveying and engineering company has complained about the granting of a large contract for the creation of the new town park for Navan to a construction firm outside the county. Paul Meade said he was trying to find "some educated reasons" why all the construction work becoming available in Meath seems to be going to companies from Northern Ireland. He said his business has been serving the construction sector since 2000 and had employed four young engineers over that time. However, he had lost all of them to emigration because of lack of work. Mr Meade has been given backing for his stance by Navan's Mayor, Cllr Anton McCabe, who has suggested that Mr Meade set up a forum among construction industry interests to lobby for a form of abrogation from EU tendering legislation. Mr Meade said he had heard that one of the largest projects to be created in Meath - the Navan town park which has a first phase cost of €400,000 - was to be constructed by a Northern Ireland firm. Criticising the system, he asked: "How are jobs ever going to be created when our own local authorities are permitted to give local work away like this? It is a disgrace and should not be allowed," he said. Navan's Mayor, Cllr McCabe, said he could understand Mr Meade's frustration. He said that EU laws on tendering were introduced at a time "when the sun was shining throughout Europe". He said that, as a serving member of the Meath VEC board, he had seen a lucrative contract for windows having to be advertised throughout Europe because that was the law, and if it was awarded outside the legal tendering contract, companies could sue the VEC.