Séamus Healy (Tipperary South, Workers and Unemployed Action Group)

I welcome the opportunity to speak on the Bill. I ask the Minister to become involved personally in the situation I intend to outline. In Carrick-on-Suir in my constituency a remedial works scheme is being carried out in the Ballylynch area. The area has approximately 160 local authority houses. The scheme was originally very badly designed, with no individual open space, no front gardens and no community or sports facilities. Proposals were made for a remedial works scheme and they went back and forth to the Department for about seven or eight years. Eventually the scheme was approved in a number of phases.

Phase one has been completed. It was completed well and the residents are happy with it. It took a further almost three years to get approval for phase two of the development. Unfortunately, the contractor who was appointed for the scheme has now gone into receivership. There are approximately 35 houses in this section of the scheme, but it is a very compact scheme so the entire scheme has been affected by this. What has resulted is a very unfair situation for residents. They are effectively living each day in the middle of a building site. I hope the Minister will personally get involved in an expeditious resolution of this situation.

As for what happened, the job was put out for tender and a company from County Galway, which was the lowest tenderer, got the contract. It had started the work but left the site just before Easter and although it was due to return on the following Tuesday, it never arrived. Worse still, it failed to contact the local authority or the residents. The local authority had difficulty even in contacting the company's representatives and this resulted in the area's residents being surrounded by bricks, mortar, fences, rubble and half-finished houses. It is most unfair to the residents, the local authority and the area's local authority representatives. While there was no contact whatsoever, eventually it was established the company in question had gone into receivership. As matters stand at present, the work has stopped and the specification as to what remains to be done in the scheme is being completed. Emergency works have been identified and while it is hoped they will be commenced by the second lowest tenderer within the next couple of months, this entails a delay of approximately three months. Moreover, my understanding is the remainder of the works must go out to tender again and if this is the case, another six to nine months will elapse before the appointment of a new contractor and the commencement of the works, during which time the residents will be obliged to live in the middle of a building site. As I stated earlier, this entire scheme now has been under way for seven or eight years and, consequently, I again ask the Minister of State to become personally involved in expediting this situation. For instance, would it not be possible for the second lowest tenderer to be awarded the contract immediately and to start the work? The second lowest tenderer already has been awarded the emergency works that must be done from a safety perspective and I ask the Minister of State to appoint that tenderer to complete the scheme and to commence the works immediately.

This example raises the question of the awarding of contracts. It has been pointed out to me a number of times that while not many contracts are in place in south Tipperary at present, it is noteworthy that not a single one of them is being carried out by a local contractor. One wonders whether it is the case that almost irrespective of anything else, the lowest tenderer is being awarded contracts. This must be reconsidered in the context of contractors' standard of work and their past experience, rather than simply taking into account the lowest tender. I reiterate my appeal to the Minister of State to become personally involved in this case because the residents find themselves in an horrendous position.

As for the Bill in general, I will turn to the position in which small subcontractors find themselves. I speak of very small subcontractors, comprising a single or perhaps two individuals who, in the boom times were individual tradespeople who had been employed by a contractor However, very many of them were forced to register and work as subcontractors during the building boom and by January 2009, like most other Members I had a queue of such small subcontractors waiting outside my constituency office. Their work had finished the previous Christmas and they had absolutely nothing for the future. Moreover, they were not entitled to social welfare payments either, because the PRSI payments they had been making merely covered them for the State pension. This issue must be examined. Obviously, I would rather that such people had been employed as employees who were paying the normal rate of social welfare contribution, because they found themselves with nowhere to turn except to apply for jobseeker's allowance. Moreover, in cases in which their partners or spouses were employed, the applicants were not entitled to any payment as they were subject to means testing. I reiterate this issue obviously must be reconsidered.

I note the issue as outlined by previous speakers whereby main contractors, when drawing up their tenders, effectively factor in a scenario in which they will not pay the full amount to their subcontractors but will knock 10%, 20% or even 30% in some cases off the price. This issue also harks back to the question of lowest tenders and obviously must be considered. On the subject of arbitration, it is necessary to have in place an arbitration system that is fair, representative and of short duration because most of the subcontractors in question find they have no legal clout and taking a matter through the courts would take forever. Moreover, they would be up against the best and most highly-paid counsel acting for the main contractors and, consequently, an arbitration system that is brief, fair and representative is absolutely essential in this regard.

See this speech in context