Michael Fitzmaurice (Roscommon-Galway, Independent) | Oireachtas source

There is something that has not been addressed yet, namely, the new tax rules for self-employed people. More people will be pushed into being subbies. As I have mentioned, doing the paperwork under the new rules will cost employers €450 per employee from next January. That will put a small business in trouble.

I will tell the previous speaker something about the building sector. I have worked on construction sites and various road projects. Often, a main contractor gets the job. If I am from Galway, I price the blocklaying as a contractor. I will probably supply the cement, ready mix, trowels and the whole shebang. I take that job on price and I then employ people. That is the way it operates. Some people get confused and believe that the main contractor should be taking on everyone. The main contractor will not. A job may be for three or six months, after which people will be gone again. In the construction sector, someone will not work on a site for 20 years and get a pension out of it. That person is almost like a bird, flying from place to place. In particular, people from rural areas come to the likes of Dublin and do the ground work, which is taken on price. They employ others - I want to be clear on that front - and must do so under Construction Industry Federation, CIF, regulations. The person who subs the work from the main contractor is not big enough to take on the full contract. That is how we get subcontractors. There will always be subcontractors because there has to be. In every job around the country, there are subbies who do not have the turnover to take on the main contract. They could be in Dublin building or laying foundations and then be building 50 houses in Galway two months later. That is the nature of the business. I need to make that clear.

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