Marcella Corcoran Kennedy (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael)

I welcome the opportunity to contribute to the debate on this legislation, which will protect small building contractors, subcontractor and sub subcontractors. I also welcome the fact that the Bill was initiated and developed by Senator Quinn and it is similar to existing legislation in Great Britain. It is about time clarity was brought to this issue. Public representatives are well aware of the many subcontractors who were caught out for no reason other than they did their jobs well. They were subcontracted work on private and public contracts by larger companies and found themselves abused by the bigger players. Many young people starting out in careers such as plastering, carpentry and so on were employed to do two or three jobs by a large developer and found they were left high and dry. Meanwhile he moved on to another group of young people trying to start out. This abuse of young people in the industry was appalling and it is time this was addressed.

The construction industry is a vital part of the economy and, therefore, checks and balances must be put in place to protect smaller contractors. Recently, I attended the opening of two secondary schools in County Offaly which were built via State contracts but the celebrations were marred because many subcontractors who worked on the projects had not been paid by the main contractor who was awarded the contracts. He did not fulfil his obligations and deprived these fine businessmen of cash flow when they needed it. It is appalling that they had to be driven to protest on an important day for students, teachers and their parents. We all felt bad for the subcontractors who, in good faith, did the work but were, unfortunately, not paid for it.

I welcome a number of the Bill's provisions, including the code of practice on adjudication. This will be helpful in avoiding a lengthy legal process in disputes. The proposal for interim payments will reduce the exposure of smaller companies and individuals because cash flow is vital to businesses. I am concerned that contracts with value in excess of €200,000 will not come under the scope of the legislation. I acknowledge it is the figure agreed by the Seanad but a number of small contractors in my constituency have raised this matter with me. They exercised their right to outline their feelings on it and many of them would like the threshold reduced to €50,000 because one man and two man operations will not win large contracts and giving them the opportunity to avail of the protection provided via a lower threshold would be only fair. I do not know how "pay-when-paid" clauses ever emerged, as they are most unfair. The practices that were introduced when the industry was booming were appalling because the big players won out and smaller contractors were left exposed. Many of them ensured their staff and suppliers were paid and they went without.

I add my voice in support of the Bill. References were made to the horse having already bolted and so on, but the proposal is nevertheless very welcome. There was ample opportunity for something like it to be put in place at any time in the past 15 years, but it was not done. I welcome the legislation as a means of helping to address that failure.

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