Kieran O'Donnell (Limerick City, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Does Ms Brogan believe the public works contract needs to be amended, whether temporarily or otherwise, to ensure it takes account of the huge inflation? The 15% sounds great but they cannot put in a claim for 24 months. If someone has a contract and was up and running before 1 January, they cannot put in a claim until they are above 50% inflation and they cannot do that for 30 months. As a layman and as an accountant, that appears to me to be unworkable in the current climate. I do not want to see the national development plan going down because we have a contract that is a straitjacket for contractors in the current environment. It might have worked in a low inflation environment but, in the current environment, I have serious concerns that we are about to get into a situation where there will be a car crash with the national development plan. As a committee Chair and as a Deputy for Limerick city and Munster, I cannot allow that to go unnoticed. We want to see urgency in this regard. Is the Department looking for the current public works contract to be amended?