Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

Is the Taoiseach considering changing or inserting serious conditions and penalties in public contracts and public procurement where firms awarded contracts by the State are found not to be in compliance with the tax code, are fraudulent in their tax affairs or are, as is the case, I would argue, with some accountancy firms here encouraging tax avoidance strategies for wealthy people? I refer to some construction or consultancy firms that are awarded big State contracts and are then often found to be up to this sort of practice. For example, on foot of a question I raised in the Dáil prior to the summer recess, a raid was carried out on the building site where the regeneration of Dophin's Barn is taking place during the summer because the workers on that site had not received payslips for two months. They were working on a public contract project. That raid was carried out subsequent to my raising the issue here, but, as of the last report I heard, those workers still have not received payslips. Is that not incredible? This is a public contract for a major job and those workers are not getting payslips. I contend that is due to bogus self-employment practices, but that needs to be investigated. Any firm found guilty of that practice should never ever be awarded another public contract. Will the Taoiseach consider measures like that for firms that are awarded public contracts and then found to be up to this sort of sharp practice?

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