Cathal Crowe (Clare, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

It is worth exploring though. We did not really understand supply chains until Covid came along. We have seen how it worked in terms of PPE and vaccines. Bulgaria will see 60% of its gas shut off today but the European bloc has rallied overnight and secured alternative supplies. It is not within the gift of this committee, the Irish Government or the Houses of the Oireachtas but the European bloc, when it has wanted to over the past 18 months, has been able to sort out pretty rich supply chains and co-ordinate transport across Europe.

I will conclude by speaking about subcontractors. A subcontractor in my home county has told me that when the current job he is on is finished he will mothball his machine for a few months because every time he goes on site he is exposed to the financial unknown, which could be crippling. He reckons he has enough money made and banked to ease off a little bit, have an enjoyable summer, tip around his own farm and get back into contracts in the autumn. He said it with a smile and he is looking forward to that but I was thinking, if this is going to be the collective attitude, we are in big trouble. My question on that relates to Roadbridge and the other contractor collapses that probably will happen if nothing else changes. In those situations, the person who is most exposed is the subcontractor.

The employee who has been on the payroll has the State and has many safety nets. They are not ideal, but safety nets come around and if we wrap them up, we support them. There is nothing for the contractors. One of our colleagues earlier spoke about a subcontractor who was exposed to the tune of €2 million, which nearly decimated him. Is there anything in the contracts Mr. Parlon mentioned in his opening statement that caters high up or low down for subcontractors or will they always be scavenging around the contract just trying to take their cut from it?