Trevor Sargent (Dublin North, Green Party)

Ba mhaith liom buíochas a ghabháil leis an gCeann Comhairle as ucht cead a thabhairt dom an cheist thábhachtach seo a ardú anocht. Over the last month I have received deputations from representatives of ten small and medium-sized indigenous companies operating in the construction sector. They alerted me to a particular scam that is widespread and straightforward.

A construction company, in this case Glenman Corporation of County Galway, won a Government contract to build council housing in Fortunestown, south County Dublin and in Ballymun, Dublin city. It hired sub-contractors to do most of its work. When the work was completed and the sub-contractors presented invoices, in one case for €374,000 and €254,000 in another, some contrived fault was found in the documentation or the work. They were told they would not be paid. When the subcontractors threatened legal proceedings, they were told it would take three years to get to court and by then they would be bankrupt. Instead, they were made an offer of approximately half of what they were owed to take or leave.

It is a clever scam because it uses the laws drafted by this House in good faith against the very people for whom laws are drafted to protect — the most vulnerable. We all know, sometimes from bitter experience, that the law favours the rich and that justice delayed is justice denied. A small contractor will have little choice but to risk going into further debt if he or she decides to take on a larger contractor. The scam also works because we have no effective prompt payments legislation. I remind the House that payment delayed is also payment denied. However, the legislation only governs public bodies and does not cover the private business sector.

Yesterday, before I raised this matter in the House while some hauliers protested outside the gates of Leinster House, I was only aware of ten companies which faced this difficulty. Today, following coverage in the national newspapers, several more have come forward to state that they also face financial ruin at the hands of Glenman Corporation. A plant hire company is owed €180,000, a site security company is owed €10,000 and a haulage company is owed €206,000. This is Government money not reaching people who work on Government projects. I spoke to one man who owes €400,000 to the people he hired to carry out this work. His apartment has been ransacked — we suspect by the creditors — his wife and children have been obliged to move out of the family home and he has not slept in his family home for four weeks because he fears for his life.

Another women who recently started a cleaning firm has been obliged to move out of Dublin to Wicklow. Her two vans have been repossessed and she is living in fear of her life, not because she has done anything wrong, but because she has been let down by our courts and our legislation.

This story will grow bigger as time passes and more people come forward. I believe the scandal is bigger than the Gama one with which we are familiar. I appeal to the House to recognise that the long-term prosperity of this country depends to an enormous extent on small to medium-sized indigenous companies. As a country, we will come to ruin if we do not legally and effectively protect sole traders and small and medium-sized companies. This does not mean grants, State loans or other funding, nor does it mean tax breaks. Legally, small companies are entitled to protection.

I appeal to this House to reform the prompt payment legislation to include all business transactions, to reform legal structures to make it affordable and accessible to all sectors of society and to make it quick and effective. Most of all however, I appeal that we examine the way in which we award Government contracts so that unscrupulous companies no longer have the power effectively to drive small companies to ruin.

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