Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I thank all the witnesses for their presentations. I will concentrate on the issue of construction workers on big sites because they must be regarded as very high-risk workers. They are different from any other category of worker in that, in the main, they do not have an employer. Many of them are self-employed sub-contractors. They do not necessarily have any representation from either of the bodies represented here. In fact, it has been suggested that more than half of them are not represented. They travel a lot; they come up from the country to work on the big sites in Dublin during the week. They stay in quite unsafe crowded lodgings during the week. They shop in local shops and mix in the community.

I note that little or no risk assessment has been done on the impact of large numbers of workers mixing in the community. A few weeks ago, a very large site in Santry in my constituency reopened illegally. It was brought to my attention by local people who contacted me to complain about large groups of construction workers in local shops buying breakfast, lunch etc. and not observing any of the rules at all. People were really concerned about the threat to the community. It is on two levels: there are the on-site risks and the local community risks. I am not satisfied that adequate risk assessment has been done on either front.

We know that guidelines and regulations tend to be meaningless without a robust inspection, enforcement and penalty regime. What is Ms King's view on the provision of penalties - fines in particular - in the protocol? Does she think these are effective? Should other measures be taken to improve the effectiveness of the penalty option to ensure adherence to the guidelines in the protocol?