Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Lord give the workers rights but just not yet. There are 365,000 RTCs in the State and it is estimated that approximately 80% of them are bogus - in other words, they are workers who should be directly employed but are subcontracting. This means that employers get to shirk their responsibility with regard to the minimum wage, employer PRSI, illness benefit and jobseekers' benefit. The clock is ticking. This is not a new issue being raised today; I raised it in this Chamber when the Kishogue dispute was going on. I had to filibuster a committee for hours to get the Government to focus on it. These RTCs are being abused so frequently that job agencies are advertising roles in the construction industry for which people do not have to pay holiday or sick pay, give proper notice or deal with direct employment. The Kishogue workers were getting €5 per hour. They had to get up every morning at 6 o'clock, stand for months on end at the place of work and try to draw attention to their situation. They had to climb cranes to draw the attention of the Minister to this issue. The worst thing about it is that it was a State contract. The Department of Education and Skills was the ultimate employer in this. All the tools and elements of the State that the Minister of State said are there to police this problem did not police it in the case of Kishogue. The school was built before the Department of Social Protection made a ruling on it.

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