Mr. Paul Quinn:

I will do my best. The Deputy asked about consortia building. We want to make sure that, in conjunction with the Competition Authority, we get good clear guidance out into the marketplace for consortia. It is not unsolvable. We visited the Welsh procurement authority recently. It has published guidance relating to joint bidding guides. That is only a front page of a much larger document. These are mechanisms for bodies to keep themselves safe. That is the core issue reflected by the Deputy around bodies being able to work together and keep themselves safe with regard to competition law. We are working with the Competition Authority to make sure that guidance gets issued as soon as possible and to enable consortia to work together. InterTradeIreland offers training to bodies who want to come together and form consortia.

I will try and move on. We issued new guidance in April 2014, in particular guidance in respect of pre-qualification criteria.

Over the last couple of years we received a great deal of feedback that some of the pre-qualification thresholds were far too high. Having examined some of the examples, we believe that the thresholds in some cases have been set too high, so the guidance has been reduced to two times the turnover of the proposed contract. That is in the guidance that was issued. It also accelerates one of the measures under the new procurement directives. It brings the guidance down from three times to two times the turnover requirement.

The Deputy mentioned Kishoge Community College. I can give him some further detail on that matter. It is important to draw attention to the fact that the public procurement process for works provides a number of protections for the State and the labour force in the delivery of projects within the existing structure. Obviously, from a policy perspective the Government wishes to ensure that these projects are delivered with a high degree of cost certainty, on time and with value for money. Delays and issues on sites do not help anybody in that context. The public works contracts already require that main contractors and any sub-contractors providing services adhere to labour law, and provide for penalties from a contractual perspective, including withholding payments and contract termination in the case of infringement. The tools are in place.

There are three layers of protection in the process. The first one is at tender stage. The bidders must sign a declaration that they have fulfilled their obligations with regard to payment of social welfare contributions and taxation. At the award stage the contractor must submit a valid tax clearance certificate as a precondition. In particular, at implementation stage the obligations under the contract come into force. There are a number of these. I will not list them all but contractors and sub-contractors are required to adhere to all legal obligations. They extend to matters such as health and safety and labour law. Contractors must submit ongoing certification under clause 5.3 of the contract to make sure that they are paid. As each payment application is made, they must certify that they are complying in full with the requirements under the contract, and that includes the requirements for sub-contractors. The contractors must maintain records and time sheets of all those employed in the works. The State has the right to audit payments that are made. It has the right to withhold if certification is not provided and deduct if certification is proven to be incorrect, and the State has the right to terminate the contract or agreement where the contractor fails to remedy the situation.

It is important to note that public bodies rarely have the resources for the level of audit necessary to conduct some of these actions and in some cases they do not have the powers that are required to police what are quite complex and difficult areas. Therefore, it is important that they report any submissions to the appropriate statutory bodies, which have the necessary powers and expertise, and particularly the National Employment Rights Authority, NERA, with regard to disputed matters.