Explaining his motivation for making his claims public, Gabriel Martel said he could not bare ?the thought of somebody being hurt because a whole bunch of people were sitting on their thumbs is insane to me. That?s not what we do in construction.?

He added: ?Once you are inside a system you try your best to use the system to do your work and when all else fails ? and this is a move of last resort ? what do you do?

?Do you walk away from the situation and say ?to hell with it, I?m not in Bermuda anymore and let the damn building fall on their kids?. Is that the attitude you are supposed to take? No.

?We are very proud of the buildings that we work on and I defy you find a tradesman who would not want to take pride in his work. They become frustrated when they are not allowed to do their work. There are a lot of good people who worked at Berkeley who were frustrated at not being able to do their work.?

Sen. David Burch has indicated he would be willing for the building to undergo an independent safety inspection. UBP Shadow Works and Engineering Minister Jon Brunson has suggested Mr. Martel be called back to show where the alleged deficiencies exist.

Mr. Martel said: ?If they wanted me to take an independent team. This is something I can?t do on my own. I would require an electrical specialist, a structural specialist and a building safety specialist, bring our equipment up there and test the building. I would have no problem doing that.?

UBP MP Mr. Brunson said: ?What has not so far been rejected by anyone is the findings of Mr. Martel. What I want to know and what Bermuda wants to know is whether what is contained in his report is true or not.

?There needs to be an independent investigation into the site.

?This man is prepared to put his money where his mouth is and, if the Government is saying what he claims is not true, I would hope they would take him up on his offer to come back and do an inspection.

?What I want to know is whether the school is safe or not ? and not with words but with proof. The safety of our kids is too high a premium to risk. Let?s focus on the truth.?