Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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I welcome the delegates from the Construction Industry Federation and Ibec. I have several questions, some of which overlap. A frustration under the old system, experienced in particular by smaller companies, was that the bigger companies could sustain the cost associated with implementation. They could take the cost on board because of their size and economies of scale. Particularly in the CIF presentation, the delegates seemed, wittingly or otherwise, to emphasise that. They seem to be trying to take out of the Bill whatever supports exist for small business. There are not many. They seem to be against the proposal. Head 13, pertaining to family business, specifically small local businesses and not big family businesses, was specifically mentioned. Head 26, on the inability-to-pay mechanism, which is incredibly restrictive, is opposed by the delegates also. How do they respond to the argument that their stance is to protect the big companies? The majority of the federation's members are big companies, but there are some small building companies also. The federation's proposals would take away whatever few supports exist at the expense of SMEs or small companies and to the benefit of larger companies.

The CIF delegates stated Part 2 of the Bill is not appropriate to the industry. Have they any alternative structure? On head 27, on compliance, has the delegation come across any comparisons we could use in terms of outer jurisdiction enforcement - for example, in Europe where borders are shared? I refer to circumstances where we have similar issues. This is a major problem, particularly where outer jurisdiction construction tendering uses different cost bases and methods. Have the delegates come across any models in their work that we could use as a guide in framing this legislation?

In the IBEC presentation, the area of substantial representation was mentioned in relation to head 18. This is a big issue. The witness was vague about how we define what is substantial representation. Representatives of CIF can come in on this. What test would the witnesses suggest, both in terms of employer organisations and unions? This is an area I am interested in pursuing because it is a major flaw in the system. Will the witnesses comment on the cross-Border issue and how we manage shared borders in terms of implementing tendering and cost aspects? On point 3, what model would IBEC use for labour measurement? Would it use an EU, OECD or UN model? This applies to CIF too. There are so many different models for measuring labour rates. Is there a preference?

Both submissions have much food for thought in them. I am just picking up on those issues, but I may come back to the representatives of CIF and IBEC separately.