Patrick O'Donovan (Limerick, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I agree with much of what the previous speaker said about the construction element of procurement contracts. There is a problem with the tendering process in terms of the construction sector.

All public representatives are aware that tenders of excessively low levels are being submitted to the county council, the Department of Education and Skills or to the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government, perhaps for a water main or the like. This is a huge problem for subcontractors. The tenders are excessively low, without any regard to quantity surveyors or what is realistically deliverable in the market. Lo and behold, half way through the contract the contractor goes belly up, leaving the local subcontractors in the lurch. Then another contract might be awarded by another local authority to the same building outfit. That local authority cannot carry out a proper background check and use the contractor's experience, be it in Limerick, Carlow or with the Department of Education and Skills, to decide that he is a cowboy, having burned subcontractors previously, and exclude him from the process.

This is happening everywhere. It happened with a school in my constituency before Christmas. It transpires that the situation is not unique to Limerick. In fact, in the case of a school in Dublin, at the same time the person was walking away from their responsibilities he got a contract to refurbish houses in a local authority in Munster. This must stop. We must give some type of comfort to subcontractors who are taking on this risk at present. I realise the Construction Contracts Bill is due to come back to the Dáil, but it does not go far enough in terms of establishing a certification process whereby if Patrick O'Donovan or Brian Hayes are subcontractors to whoever, they must be paid in full before the next contract is awarded or before the last tranche of funding is drawn down. It is a huge a problem. These are small businesses and, to borrow a phrase from the previous speaker, they are being screwed wholesale by contractors who have no regard for them, their families or their employees, who must also put bread on the table.

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