Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Sinn Fein)
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Go raibh maith agat. With regard to the collation of information, Mr. Quinn has stated that he is not collating information from capital projects now. Is it his intention to collate this information in the future? If not, will it be the case that the Departments will collate the information because there is an information deficit? The second question concerns a report on the review of performance of public works contracts. The construction industry is in chaos in many ways. Construction at Kishoge Community College is a prime example. On this project workers have been out on picket on a daily basis for nearly a year. I understand the review looks at industrial disputes between the main contractor on the site and the people who are contracting the tender.

However, the problem is much deeper than this with subcontracting. There are subcontractors on the site at Kishoge who are not even paying the minimum wage. All of the issues associated with terms and conditions are completely ignored. In such a case, the main contractor throws up his hands and says it has nothing to do him. What is happening is further down the contracting food chain. The problem is arising on the site at Kishoge and we know that it is arising on other sites also. Owing to the broken nature of the construction industry and the fact that most new contracts are State contracts, what I describe is becoming the norm in the case of private contracts. Therefore, there is a contagion effect. Is it important that the Office of Government Procurement seek to ensure what I have described does not happen and fix this element of the system? Will it be able to ensure contracts between a contracting organisation and the main contractor are actually adhered to? My information is that the contracts determine that all responsibility falls on subcontractors further down the food chain.

My second question is on the performance of public works contracts. Will the CPO formally include the workers' aspects in the performance of public works contracts in the future?