Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I believe the witnesses' comments that they have empathy for people who use their own skills for manual labour to build pitches and schools. Arising from a mess not of their creation, they have been left high and dry and hundreds of thousands of euro out of pocket. They are unlikely to get that benefit but the State will get the benefit of their labour when the schools open in September.

Is it not the case that the solution to this is to require the new contractor to enlist the subcontractors who carried out the work in these schools and get them to certify their work? This would do a number of things. First, the contractors would be paid. In addition, we would know the work is being done to the standard to which it is supposed to be done and we would know that there is insurance cover in respect of the products used for construction. When I was young, a boy in a neighbouring school unfortunately lost his life because some goalposts fell on him. Things like that happen in school environments.

There is an urgency in terms of having the schools we are discussing opened. They look complete to anyone standing outside but pupils are still in their old schools. I can understand all that but it is crucial that we get this right for the safety of the pupils and teachers in the long term. We also need to do the right thing by the subcontractors. Why was that not considered in this option? The easy solution is to require the contractors to engage with the subcontractors and the companies that did a lot of this work - this is already happening in some instances - pay them off and get them to certify their work. Otherwise, we will be selling our children short. We are definitely selling the subcontractors short. I appreciate that the NDFA does not have responsibility in this regard. However, the NDFA could indirectly stipulate a solution that would benefit everybody involved with the contract in question.