Danny Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent) | Oireachtas source

This system is hurting many small companies in that they are not allowed to tender for contracts but they end up doing the work for the larger company that comes into the local area to supply the contract. Ten companies in the country are running the contracts involving all the jobs now. The local traders are only left with the crumbs. They do not get the proper value out of the jobs that come into an area because often people from outside the area are awarded the contract but that does not benefit the local community. The local business man, be it a builder or a plan hire operator, gets very little benefit from it. The contract can be awarded to a person from far outside the area and if this issue is not addressed, it will continue to hurt rural communities.

I ask the Minister of State to take cognisance of what is happening. It is the local man who finishes up doing the work involved in these contracts. As Deputy Mattie McGrath said, the local poor trader is asked to contribute to or to sponsor local events, be it a carnival or a field day, and were it not for those sponsors many of those events would not be held, given the cost of insurance and other costs, yet it is those events that keep communities going. We as Members of this House need to address this issue. The current system is hurting all the small operators who have stood the test of time, but this new system is blowing them all out of existence.

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