Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

That is exactly the issue. There are decent employers and they tell me they cannot get State contracts because they are being undercut by employers who - I am trying to think of a diplomatic word to describe them; the Minister of State probably knows the type of word I would use, but I will not use it here - are exploiting their workers via bogus self-employment and undermining the rate while they are doing work on behalf of the State. When the Minister of State says that some employers are undermining workers' rights, they are, but the State is an actor in this. Will he consider engaging with the local authorities to find out what practices or mechanisms, if any, are in place to ensure this is not happening? This is not in every local authority. My read of it is that in some cases the cheque is signed and so long as the work is done, there is very little oversight from the local authority. Local authorities should be proactively ensuring that the rate is respected, that workers are not in a bogus self-employment situation but are in fact contractors where there is an employment relationship that is honoured. That is not happening in every case. I know the Minister of State is not naive enough to think that it is. What I want to establish is whether there are practices in place and instructions coming from the Government to agencies, in this case specifically to local authorities.

I apologise that the reference to local authorities was missing from the original request for the Topical Issue debate. Is there a specific mechanism in place in local authorities to monitor the situation? I do not believe there is. Does the Minister of State agree with me that there should be one? Could he take steps to ensure that happens, so that at the very least when the State is spending money it is making sure that the money is being spent on decent work?

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