Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Sinn Fein)
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I move amendment No. 2:

In page 5, between lines 3 and 4, to insert the following:"(c) A local authority will only provide financial support by way of loan or grant aid to a company that is compliant with all employment law and labour court judgements.”.

Compliance and regulation are very important issues in this whole process. One of the major problems we have in this country is that we do not enforce compliance and regulation, which often leaves workers and people within the system vulnerable. One of the reasons we have this problem is due to the lack of funding going into enforcement and the lack of processes to incentivise proper compliance with regulation. We can do this at no cost to the State. While I have a particular problem with the local property tax, what the Government did was logical. If a person who puts an extension onto their house wants to apply to claim back VAT over a few years, he or she must make sure he or she is tax compliant. Therefore, it incentivises people on a cost free basis to be compliant with local taxes.
From speaking to subcontractors, a number of them would say that the legislation is positive. However, there is no enforcement with regard to subcontractors. We could incentivise compliance among subcontractors by providing that unless they are fully compliant they cannot tender for Government jobs. We could provide for the same with regard to compliance with employment law and Labour Court judgments. We could provide that unless they are compliant in that regard they will not be entitled to draw down grant funding or any other service from a local enterprise office in the future. That no doubt would improve compliance on a cost free basis to the State and would have a positive effect on the experience of workers in businesses. That is the idea behind this amendment.