The Construction Industry Federation has written to county councils expressing concern that five school and college buildings may be certified for use without proper tests being done to ensure that they are in compliance with legal standards.
Three of the five new buildings are due to open to pupils in coming weeks after their completion was delayed by the collapse of UK company Carillion and Irish construction company Sammon.
A number of subcontractors have been left owed money as a result of the collapse and have not signed off on work, including structural work, that they have completed on the site.
In a letter sent to Building Compliance Officers working at Meath, Wicklow, Carlow, and Wexford county councils the CIF said it is a cause of "great concern" that the certifier and the main contractor now engaged to complete the works are not based in Ireland.
It said it would be "very concerned" if certification was to be granted based on visual inspections and "desktop type" studies.
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In the letter, sent late last month, the CIF says it believes that Building Control Regulation require "very extensive destructive testing and in some cases the complete exposure of significant elements of the works".
This refers to elements of a building’s construction that are hidden from view, for example electrical wiring within walls.
The letter, signed by Sean Downey, Director of specialist contracting with the CIF, said it understands that there is a degree of urgency to open the buildings, but that this should not be done at the expense of the safety of those who will use the building.
The CIF said it is writing after a number of its members, previously involved in the projects, raised concerns with the organisation.
Earlier last month questions were raised at a Dáil committee hearing as to whether the State would be in breach of its own building laws if it allowed the schools to open with work certified without input from subcontractors who had completed elements of the buildings, including floors, steel balustrades and carpentry work.
However the National Development Finance Agency told the Oireactas Finance Committee that it was satisfied with the approach that would be taken.
It said a new contractor – brought in to complete the works following the collapse of Sammon – would engage new subcontractors who would certify their own work as well as work carried out by previous subcontractors, as part of an overall process of certification led by an independent certifier.
Officials from the NDFA told the committee that it was an "absolute State requirement" to have work on three of the new school buildings, for Coláiste Ráithín and Ravenswell Primary School in Bray, Co Wicklow, and Loreto Secondary School in Wexford, completed in time for the new school year.
Work on the almost complete schools stopped last January after Carillion, which was part of a public private partnership consortium building the schools, collapsed.
Responding to the CIF letter, Wicklow County Council told the CIF that building owners, designers and builders are bound by legal obligations under the Building Control Act to ensure that all construction is in accordance with building regulations, and that it is the role of the independent certifier to verify this.
