Ruth Coppinger (Dublin West, Socialist Party) | Oireachtas source

How can the Minister, as a member of the Labour Party, have allowed this strike go on for the past few months? Several Deputies have already brought it to her attention. She will not give a commitment tonight to withhold funds from an employer. I know the Labour Party has fallen in recent years. I will give the Minister examples of the sums of money owed by this employer to these workers. One who worked for almost 14 weeks was paid €2,385. He is owed in excess of €10,000. Another who worked over ten weeks was paid €2,300 and is owed more than €7,208. I could give the Minister more figures if she wanted to listen to them.

Unfortunately, CAS does not have the teeth to follow up on what needs to be done. The Revenue Commissioners and the Department of Social Protection do not co-operate on these matters. There is only one way that Rhatigan and other developers could undercut other contractors, and that is by allowing black economy practices among its workers. Most work and operate from Northern Ireland so most of the money is lost from here. They sign on in the North and drive down to work here on many sites. In other cases, workers are from Cork, Limerick etc. How would it be viable for them to drive to Dublin every day to do that unless they were signing on the dole as well? One does not need to be a genius to work that out.

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