Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State's contribution on this. The headline stories on the collapse of the construction sector were all about the big players and I do not need to recall their names for this committee. On closer examination, it transpired that most of those companies had very few, if any, direct employees. The real workhorses of the sector, and the people we came in contact with, were the subcontractors for whom €10,000 or €1,000, whether for a fitted kitchen, a roofing contract or an electrical wiring job, was the difference between having a wage or no wage at the end of the week. The consultation process, the regulatory impact assessment and the engagement that has gone on have significantly improved the Bill. Dropping the threshold down to €10,000 is very welcome and will go a long way towards addressing the concerns of those small subcontractors.

In a neighbouring constituency of mine in west Limerick not long ago, I recall the issue of Kilfinane school and the subcontractors there, all of whom were badly burned and could get no redress. That is a story that sticks as a visual manifestation of this problem. It is too late for them but at least now, under this legislation, they will have recourse in future when it comes to contracts. That is important because in recent years all the big players in the industry, while they might have had a site foreman, had all their work carried out by subcontractors, and those subcontractors were left high and dry when the tide went out. This provides solace for them. The thresholds previously envisaged were far too high in terms of the impact on these small subcontractors, and this is a good day's work.