Seán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

There was not a suggestion but there was a concern in the interests of transparency and general taxpayer feeling that everybody who should be in the tax net is in it. It is about fairness and transparency as well as collecting tax. Overall it has been good from that point of view. We note and publish that and we acknowledge the good work of the Revenue Commissioners in that regard.

No. 2195B is from Mr. Paul Quinn, chief procurement officer, Office of Government Procurement, dated 28 May 2019, providing follow-up information regarding the Construction Contracts Act 2013 which we requested at our meeting with the National Paediatric Hospital Development Board on 16 May 2019. We will note and publish this and it will feed into our consideration of the matter in our next periodic report.

The key issue here was that we asked about the Construction Contracts Act 2013 which was a side issue to the discussion with the board of the paediatric hospital but it dealt with the question of subcontractors being paid for work. In this document Mr. Quinn points out that the Construction Contracts Act 2013 does provide, irrespective of the provisions of a subcontract, that the subcontractors are entitled to be paid the full value of work completed every 30 days. I am putting this on record because subcontractors get concerned that they may be left waiting. Paying parties must respond within 21 days and if they fail to respond, they can be caught for the full bill submitted in the event that they do not contest it. Any dispute has to be adjudicated and can go for adjudication where that arises. We asked for that to be put on record.

I will go back to Mr. Quinn to clarify a question that has arisen in respect of the children's hospital. Where the main contractor makes a submission for extra work carried out, which could take quite a long time to adjudicate, where stands the subcontractor in the meantime? I do not know the answer. This document states the subcontractor is entitled to be paid for the full value of work within 30 days but if it is for extra work that has not been accepted by the contracting party, where does the subcontractor stand?