Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Sinn Fein)

Cuirim fáilte roimh an Bille seo agus roimh an obair iontach atá déanta ag an Seanadóir Quinn. Léirigh mo chomhleacaí, an Teachta Mary Lou McDonald, tuairimí mo pháirtí ar an Bhille. Gan amhras, lig an Rialtas deiridh agus rialtóirí an Aontais Eorpaigh do bhaincéirí agus forbróirí réadmhaoine dul amú. De bharr sin, tá ar oibrithe foirgníochta agus íocóirí cána an praghas is mó a íoc.

Over 160,000 jobs have been lost in the construction industry. The Central Statistics Office figures indicate that the construction sector accounts for 57% of all job losses since 2007. Its important to repeat that figure to take in the scale of the collapse. Almost 60% of the jobs lost in the economy have been lost in the construction sector. It is a staggering figure which represents a staggering loss of skills. It is a staggering tragedy for the families and communities concerned.

I am always angered when commentators and some Ministers refer to the scale of job losses as an adjustment, explaining away the figures as a natural modification. An adjustment is minor and quick. What the construction sector and those who work in it have experienced, in both economic and human terms, is catastrophic.

The boom in construction was promoted by a systemic failure to regulate bank lending and the loss of monetary powers by the State to the European Union. Continued over-contraction of the industry is the result of systemic failure and the pro-cyclical response by the Government. The focus has been on a fiscal strategy that removed €3.7 billion in the last budget and has driven demand downwards. This includes a cut in capital infrastructure spending of €750 million this year and a projected cut of €550 million next year. The Government's aspirational growth figures are not realisable in these circumstances. One cannot take €1.3 billion out of the economy over two years and expect this sector to grow. According to the Department's figures, it will result in 11,000 job losses.

At the same time as the Government has cut investment in the construction industry, the banks, despite being recapitalised from the public purse, have yet to deal with the problem of impaired loans to SMEs. The recent findings of the Central Bank are that 58%, the majority of loans to the construction industry, are not performing. The bank has also found that one third of all capital lent to SMEs last year went to construction, the vast bulk of which was in respect of the roll-over of existing loans. Private sector demand has fallen off a cliff owing to rising unemployment and the lack of capital. The sector remains hamstrung by debt and cannot gain access to credit.

The response of the Government has been to cut the level of public sector investment in physical infrastructure at a time when it is most required. The failure of the Government to deal with the problem has led to the situation where payments within the sector have been frozen. As Members throughout the House have stated, one business failure has a knock-on effect on suppliers, contractors and subcontractors. For all the talk of a possible contagion within the banking sector, it is rife within the construction industry.

That is why we welcome this Bill as a proposal to free up the flow of money within the construction industry.

However, there is more to be done if the Government is serious about getting construction workers back to work and developing the sector to a sustainable level. It should begin by reversing cuts to infrastructure spending and investing in shovel-ready programmes that will create jobs immediately as well as enhance the long-term competitiveness of the industry. Other steps that must be taken include investing in the roll-out of broadband, retrofitting of public and private buildings and facilitating new builds in the education sector. In the North there is 90% medium to fast broadband availability, but the equivalent availability in the South is a mere 4.6%. Increasing broadband availability by 10% leads to an increase in GDP of 1%. The Government is failing to take these steps to invest in our long-term competitiveness. The response, of course, will be that we are broke, but the same Government paid out more than €21 billion to the banks last year.

There are other issues that must be addressed in the construction industry. Procurement is of particular importance and something I have discussed with the Minister. There is a danger that the centralisation of procurement makes it less accessible to small businesses. It does not have to be that way. There are actions the Government can take which would ensure, even under a centralised system, that contracts remain accessible to all. Unfortunately, that is not necessarily the direction in which the Government is headed. We must have procurement guidelines that allow small and medium-sized enterprises to compete for contracts and which ensure that those winning tenders will enhance local employment and skills and purchase local goods and services. Operators who secure public contracts must comply with all conditions of the contract, including paying the recognised rates of pay. There is much anecdotal evidence of contractors and subcontractors on public contracts not paying the going rate and otherwise not respecting the entitlements of workers. Not only is this severely detrimental to the workers concerned but it also leads to an uneven playing field. The Government must ensure that the conditions attaching to public contracts are fully complied with if its own policies are not to be fundamentally undermined.

Ireland is fortunate to have global leaders in the construction sector. We have the necessary skills and we also have massive excess capacity in the sector. Those skills are in demand across the globe. Companies like Kingspan have demonstrated that it is possible for this State to create world-beating products. The Government must take action to maximise competitiveness within the domestic sector. It needs to tackle cartelism where it exists in order to drive down costs, particularly energy costs. Despite the increase in competitiveness in other sectors, high energy costs have served to maintain and increase construction costs. We must also tackle the black economy, which reduces revenues and fundamentally undermines the ability of legitimate businesses to function.

There is a range of policy options available to the Government in order to build a sustainable construction sector. To date, however, it has failed to bring forward effective proposals. That task has been left, in this instance, to an Independent Senator. This Government is apparently content to see skilled tradespeople leave Ireland, never to return. Last year, for example, some 76,000 people left the State, which amounts to nine every hour. I welcome this Bill as a necessary step towards building a sustainable construction sector.

See this speech in context