Brian Hayes (Dublin South West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

From studying this in recent years I have learned about the complete lack of construction contracts in Ireland. There is poor practice throughout the industry with regard to regulating contracts and ensuring we have enforceable contracts. One of the reasons the Bill was presented by Senator Quinn and others was that people had been burned substantially. On an all-party basis we agreed this can never happen again and that we needed to put the industry on a new footing where proper enforceable contracts would be in place and fairness would be applied through proper adjudication. One of the purposes of the Bill is that once it is established it will lead to better practice in the industry. It is this better practice which I expect will result in more supply and install elements in contracts. We will also have recourse to these contracts, which previously did not exist. The Bill will set a new standard and the industry will have to respond to it in a way that has not happened in the past.

With regard to the point raised by Deputy Twomey, he is correct that title is a fundamental issue, but it is not my job to decide the issue of title. It is a larger issue and I suspect the Minister for Justice and Equality will have a view on it. The legal issue is clear in that if something is not installed and fixed it is retrievable, in that it belongs to the person who supplied it. Once it is installed and fixed it really is an essential part of the property and the questions of beneficial ownership and the title of the property come into being.

This is another example of the point I made earlier. If we extend the Bill it will become something it is not at present. The intention of Senator Quinn's Bill is to resolve a problem quickly, this problem being the plight of subcontractors and ensuring people are paid on time. The real problem in the industry is that people are not paid on time, and we know this. People were burned substantially as a result of what occurred in the crash. If we make a fundamental change on title it will become a wider Bill. This is my dilemma. It would require five or six Ministers across five or six Departments, including the Departments of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation and Justice and Equality. It has taken a long time to get the Bill this far and I want to get it over the line to ensure it is applicable for a generation of people who need it. I accept that title is a problematic issue. If something is fixed and installed it is part and parcel of the existing current title of the owner.