Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Recently, the Minister said there were insufficient resources within the Department to carry out important activities such as referring a report on tax evasion to the Garda. Given this, is there not a necessity to provide further resources for the Department?

Deputy Dara Calleary touched on other important issues. It is really important that the responsibilities for construction contracts are properly dealt with by the Department. I have said previously that the sector is in major chaos, having regard to the experiences of subcontractors. Staff working in the sector are being forced into subcontracting. This has been ongoing for a long period. The Bill enjoyed cross-party Oireachtas support and in the Government's An Action Plan for Jobs it was stated it would be finalised by this stage. A code of practice was to be agreed to. Is it yet to be finalised? The sector is very volatile and needs focus. Many cannot understand the hold up in completing the nomination of adjudicators.

In regard to the placing of the advertisements for staff of the low paid commission, for which €2,000 has been assigned in the Supplementary Estimate, why has this not happened to date? If the advertisement for these positions is not placed before the end of the year there is little chance they will be in place by the first quarter next year. Currently, Ireland has one of the worst records with regard to low pay and the number of people under-employed. These are two significant challenges to the economy and family lives. If we could garner that information today it would be very helpful.