Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

On the face of it this seems to be a positive amendment section but I would like to fully understand what is proposed. It seems to be a measure to impose penalties on principal contractors who make payments to subcontractors where those subcontractors, or the principal contractors themselves, are not fully tax compliant. I very much welcome the measure.

This morning I was up very early, at 5.30 a.m. I was on a picket line in Lucan because a number of bricklayers are picketing a site where a school is being constructed by a principal and large contractor. The bricklayers allege, and some of the stories are quite hair-raising, that across the construction industry the business model being pursued is one where principal contractors are knowingly engaged in situations where payments are being made to people who are purportedly subcontractors but in fact are not subcontractors at all. The allegations need to be investigated. Some of the allegations are hair-raising and there are claims people have been told to meet in pubs where they were handed brown envelopes stuffed full of cash but no proper payslips and Revenue documentation were involved. There are allegations of people who sign on in the North coming across the Border to get paid cash for work done here. If any of these allegations are true then the situation is very serious. Building workers in the industry have made the allegation that such things are happening all over the place. They argue that it is now the business model of some of the biggest contractors in the country and is the reason they are able to submit lower bids for public contracts. If the allegations are even close to the truth then the situation is very serious.

It is against that background that I welcome the amendment which stipulates there should be penalties imposed if money is handed from a principal contractor to a subcontractor where there is not full compliance. What exactly is happening? How is compliance established? What is the criteria around compliance? Something can look okay on paper but in reality can be easy to get around. I want the Minister of State to convince me that the legislation will do the job that it seems to set out to do.