Ms Cora O'Brien:

We are very aware of the project to which the Senator refers in respect of the contractors' industry. We have had a great deal of feedback both from contractors and our members who deal with them. We have made representations to Revenue in which we stress that while we fully appreciate that Revenue has an obligation and a requirement in a self-assessment system to audit and carry out checks, people also need to know what are the ground rules. These rules must be applied consistently across all sectors to avoid surprises and ensure everybody is treated in the same way. If there is an issue to be dealt with and behaviour of any description needs to be changed, let us deal with it, move on and make the rules clear in order that everybody will know what they are doing.

The Senator is correct that the profile of those involved in the contractor sector shows that they tend to be young and have young families and many of them have debt. There has been a great deal of stress around the project to which the Senator refers. As recently as last week, we made a comprehensive submission of 17 pages featuring much comment and feedback from people on the ground who are living with the project at the moment.