Mr. Brian Nolan:

There is a fear that without some form of sufficiently strong compliance body that acts both as a deterrent and enforcer of the legislation, the legislation will not be worth the paper it is written on. One key focus of the legislation as I understand it is the creation of a level playing field for contractors and workers so that nobody is undermined within the industries to which the agreements apply. At the same time, a key component is industrial peace. Reference was made to scaremongering but the fact is that since May 2013 there are industrial disputes all over the country because there is a void as employers are not applying terms and conditions, not just the ones relating to existing agreements but the other breaches I spoke of such as those relating to the Organisation of Working Time Act. Once exploitation begins, it gets worse. We are very much of the opinion that whatever mechanism is agreed, it must be sufficiently strong and robust. Our view is that unions would play a part no matter what because our members will always revert to us with their concerns and queries.