Mick Barry (Cork North Central, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

An issue which has not figured in this debate to date is the question of worker exploitation at the national children's hospital project site. This is an issue which must be dealt with and stopped wherever the hospital ends up being built, be the St. James's site, a greenfield site or Connolly hospital. The contractor at the site, BAM, has a network of subcontractors. One of the subcontractors it frequently uses is Kwik Structures. On 7 February 2018, my colleague, Deputy Paul Murphy, told the House that the company was responsible for illegal super-exploitation of construction workers, many of them migrants, at a BAM student accommodation project at Grangegorman and Boland's Mill. He instanced the fact that Kwik Structures was paying significantly below sectoral employment order, SEO, rates, was not providing workers with payslips and had not registered its workers with the construction workers' pension scheme.

Since then, Kwik Structures has moved on site at the national children's hospital project. Has any action been taken on foot of the charges made by Deputy Paul Murphy over a year ago? Is this company now paying employers’ PRSI? Is it providing its workers with payslips? Has it fully declared the income tax on P60s? Does it have offshore accounts to avoid paying tax? Has the Minister looked into this matter over the course of the past year? Does the Minister not want to look under that particular rock as he is afraid of what he might see?

This is an issue which has importance in and of itself. It is also an issue which has a wider importance. The national children's hospital is meant to be the jewel in the crown of €115 billion worth of national development projects. The standards for all projects are meant to be set at this hospital. What is the position regarding worker exploitation? The Government, the Revenue Commissioners and the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection are turning a blind eye to it. They are showing a reckless disregard for workers’ rights and a scandalous dereliction of duty in terms of collecting tax revenue for society.

Sections of the media have tried to make out that construction wage costs are a factor in the overruns. They are not. The entry level wage rate for construction workers is €28,000 a year. This is a sector of the economy which has seen record profits, up €1 billion in 2018 from what it was in 2017. The issue is not of workers being paid too much but of worker exploitation and super-exploitation. It is alive and well on the construction site of the children’s hospital. For these reasons, we support the 12% wage claim over three years that the construction unions have submitted. We also support their claim for a one-hour daily travel allowance.

We will be supporting this motion. We think the point raised by Deputy Bríd Smith about the review being time-limited is important. There should be no suspension of employment for any worker in the event of a suspension of the construction. The issues of the cost of the project and the accessibility have to be important factors in that.

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