Conference Chairperson & Opening Remarks

Martin Cooney, Partner and Head of the Byrne Wallace Shields LLP Construction Law Team

How the Public Works Contract Allocates Risk from Day One

Speaker: Robert Rooney, Partner, Mason Hayes and Curran

• The contract structure and the documents that matter most when disputes emerge
• Order of precedence and the practical impact of clarifications and amendments
• Where assumptions made at tender stage create later arguments on scope, design, pricing and responsibility
• The recurring risk allocation problems that continue to shape claims and disputes

Tender Clarifications, Pricing Assumptions and the Problems They Cause Later

Speaker: Shane O'Connor, Partner, RDJ

• Post-tender clarifications and where they alter the commercial understanding of the job
• Qualifications, exclusions and assumptions that resurface during delivery
• Abnormally low or unrealistic pricing and how it feeds later claims behaviour
• What contracting authorities and tenderers need to watch for before the contract is signed

Design Responsibility Creep on Employer-Designed Contracts

Speaker: Paul Tohill, Legal Director, Browne Jacobson LLP

• Where responsibility is being pushed onto contractors despite employer-designed wording
• Temporary works, specialist design elements, offsite manufacture and coordination risk
• Drawings, specifications and performance requirements that shift liability by stealth
• The contract and document trail that matter when design responsibility becomes disputed

Clause 10.6 and the Real-World Valuation of Change

• How the valuation sequence operates in practice
• Similar work, similar conditions and where disagreements usually begin
• Fair valuation and the recurring arguments around rates, prelims, overheads and margin
• What happens when pricing documents do not provide a workable route to valuation

Clauses 10.3 and 10.7: Notices, Delay Costs and the €0 Rate Problem

• What must be done to preserve entitlement under the notice provisions
• The practical effect of blank, nominal or unrealistic delay rates
• When time is granted but recovery of cost becomes far more difficult
• The recurring disputes around delay costs, extended prelims and supporting records

Extensions of Time, Programme Contingency and Constructive Acceleration

• How programme contingency interacts with delay events and extension of time decisions
• What happens when contingency is exhausted, ignored or poorly understood
• Concurrent delay, sequencing issues and the practical difficulties in assessing entitlement
• Acceleration pressure where entitlement is disputed but progress must continue

The Employer’s Representative: Decisions, Determinations and Where Things Break Down

• The ER’s powers, duties and practical limits under the contract
• What a properly reasoned determination should look like
• Certification, communication failures and the impact of weak contract administration
• How poor ER decisions can drive avoidable claims and escalation

Payment, Named Specialists, Subcontractor Exposure and Escalation Strategy

• Payment certification issues and the records needed to support entitlement
• Where named specialists and subcontractors are exposed when delay or change arises
• The limits of downstream protection under linked contract structures
• When issues should remain at project level and when escalation to Project Board or conciliation becomes the better course