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

On 5 July last, I pointed out in the House that workers had been working on a public contract for Purcell Construction, which is the developer, and Rapid Developments, the subcontractor. The workers were employed since April or May and still had not received payslips. Even after I raised the matter with the Minister, which was followed by a raid by the joint investigation unit, JIU - although that raid was a joke - the workers still have not received payslips. In August, they finally got a notification that they were PAYE workers as of 23 August, but there was no reference to the fact that there was no tax, registration or anything else since their employment began in April or May. This is a flagrant breach of the law, and this is a public contract.

I have just returned from the meeting of the Joint Committee on Education and Skills at which Western Building Systems, which built six schools in flagrant breach of fire safety standards, was discussed. Another one that has not come into the public domain is Whitehall College of Further Education, also built during that period, in respect of which, I understand, legal action is being taken by the Office of Public Works over the company's failure to comply with proper standards. Are these companies seriously going to continue to be awarded public contracts? It is outrageous. In the case of the schools, children are being put at risk. The company signed off, fraudulently in my opinion, on fire safety in those buildings, which were then discovered to be defective on multiple occasions. Will those companies be get further public contracts? I do not believe they should.

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