Joe Costello (Dublin Central, Labour)
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What has been outlined by the Department of Education and Skills demonstrates that it has a reasonably thorough monitoring process in place. It has taken various steps to deal with the issue by requiring a tax clearance certificate, declarations of compliance and having an online complaints system, etc. What we need is information on the outputs of that process. However, we need to do the same with all of the Departments involved, including the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government which is in the business of procuring contracts for house building. What we should be concerned with is the procurement system for contracts and the monitoring of the employment and social welfare systems because we regularly hear about irregularities in the manner in which contracting and subcontracting takes place. The issue of subcontracts may well be part of the main problem.