Of the 200 contractors who turned up to work on D|RES Properties sites on May 18th, 32 were sent home. The construction industry is back, but its operating quite differently from how it did before the Covid-19 outbreak. Those who were turned away from the D|RES sites couldn't produce the digital card from the Construction Industry Federation that proves that they had completed Covid-19 online induction seminar. Every operative who enters a building site has to have the card. They must also have their temperature taken to show they aren’t displaying symptoms of the virus.
We have 400 houses to hand over this year and we have to get everyone back to work
Phase one of the government's reopening plans has seen the return of outside workers including builders, landscapers and gardeners. Patrick Durkan, Chief Executive Officer of D|RES Properties is taking the responsibility and the regulations seriously.
"If we get it wrong, as an industry, we will be shut down - and people don't want that. We have to get this right. We have 400 houses to hand over this year and we have to get everyone back to work" he says.
The company has invested time and money preparing sites before reopening them. "We have double walkways, segregated canteens, larger drying rooms and mandatory hand-wash stations. We have doubled the number of car park spaces. We are now staggering canteen times and have a one-man one-van policy," says Durkan.
