Results 30,181-30,200 of 34,778 for speaker:Seán Fleming
- Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Construction Contracts Bill 2010: Committee Stage (15 May 2013)
Seán Fleming: The subcontractor is on the site for six months for a big job. The main contractor will get paid as the certificates are produced to show that the work is at a certain point. He will get staged payments. The purpose of the Bill is to ensure the staged payments get passed on to subcontractors. Is there a mechanism in the Bill for a certification on behalf of the subcontractor doing block...
- Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Construction Contracts Bill 2010: Committee Stage (15 May 2013)
Seán Fleming: I thought that was the sole purpose of the Bill. The Bill is not about helping the main contractor. It is about helping the guy at the bottom of the food chain to get paid. It is not about the main guy.
- Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Construction Contracts Bill 2010: Committee Stage (15 May 2013)
Seán Fleming: We are here because that system is failing. People would not be looking for money if that system worked. That is the genesis of the concept behind the Bill.
- Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Construction Contracts Bill 2010: Committee Stage (15 May 2013)
Seán Fleming: We will come to that later on.
- Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Construction Contracts Bill 2010: Committee Stage (15 May 2013)
Seán Fleming: We will not go that far. We will move on.
- Ministers and Secretaries (Amendment) Bill 2012: Second Stage (15 May 2013)
Seán Fleming: How much time do I have?
- Ministers and Secretaries (Amendment) Bill 2012: Second Stage (15 May 2013)
Seán Fleming: I welcome the opportunity to speak on the Ministers and Secretaries (Amendment) Bill 2012. As the Minister has said the Bill is quite short and deals with some specific matters. While it is useful in that regard, it is only useful in so far as it goes. The legislation leaves much to be desired and should have included other matters. I will deal with one or two of those points...
- Ministers and Secretaries (Amendment) Bill 2012: Second Stage (15 May 2013)
Seán Fleming: Please God - and rightly so. It is important to have these arrangements in place because the troika would not have confidence leaving us without some of these additional measures being in place. It should have been in place but be that as it may, it is coming through now. The main change the Bill will effect is to provide for medium-term expenditure management in Ireland and it makes...
- Ministers and Secretaries (Amendment) Bill 2012: Second Stage (15 May 2013)
Seán Fleming: I know that, but I am talking about the actual payment. Also included are the salaries and pensions of Uachtarán na hÉireann, the Comptroller and Auditor General, and Deputies. I will come back to those points. The Central Fund, unless otherwise stipulated by law, is where all State revenues are deposited. I now want to deal with a specific issue. I refer to the document, the...
- Ministers and Secretaries (Amendment) Bill 2012: Second Stage (15 May 2013)
Seán Fleming: I am referring to the Medium-Term Fiscal Statement, published in November 2012. I believe it came after the comprehensive review of public expenditure. This was the one published in November 2012, incorporating the Department of Finance autumn forecasts.
- Ministers and Secretaries (Amendment) Bill 2012: Second Stage (15 May 2013)
Seán Fleming: Fine. I do have it, but the figures I am taking-----
- Ministers and Secretaries (Amendment) Bill 2012: Second Stage (15 May 2013)
Seán Fleming: It is interesting that the figures published last year have changed already. Is that the point the Minister is making?
- Ministers and Secretaries (Amendment) Bill 2012: Second Stage (15 May 2013)
Seán Fleming: I would have hoped the forecast would have lasted longer than six months. Anyhow it is an update. I have checked some recent figures also based on the 2013 Estimates. I refer to the document, Estimates of Receipt and Expenditure for the year ending 31 December 2013, which costs €1 for those who want to pay for it. I also referenced my figures to this document and there is a slight...
- Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Construction Contracts Bill 2010: Committee Stage (15 May 2013)
Seán Fleming: Will the Minister of State clarify that again? He is saying the person can now be paid when the work is certified. What happens if the person who is to certify the work is slow to do so and is somebody the main contractor uses regularly to certify work but who takes his time? There is no time limit specified for the person to certify the work has been done. There is an intermediary there...
- Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Construction Contracts Bill 2010: Committee Stage (15 May 2013)
Seán Fleming: Yes, they all take a percentage. I hope for a mechanism to cover not just the main registered subcontractors but also to pay the people who work on the job.
- Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Construction Contracts Bill 2010: Committee Stage (15 May 2013)
Seán Fleming: It is a very good one.
- Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Construction Contracts Bill 2010: Committee Stage (15 May 2013)
Seán Fleming: I move amendment No. 13: In page 5, before section 2, to insert the following new section:“2.—It shall be the duty of a state contracting entity to ensure that a social contract clause is inserted into every construction contact that the state contracting entity may award to a prospective executing party.”.
- Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Construction Contracts Bill 2010: Committee Stage (15 May 2013)
Seán Fleming: Precisely. They would know the main contractor got a cheque in the morning and they would want their cheques by lunchtime. Rather than, as Deputy Mathews mentioned, a main contractor saying he is waiting for a quantity surveyor to approve the staged payment and that it is held up for another month and then another month and having all that flouting around, the State body could put a notice...
- Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Construction Contracts Bill 2010: Committee Stage (15 May 2013)
Seán Fleming: The subcontractors would queue up for their cheques and they would all go home with them at lunchtime. It is a blunt instrument and a direct approach. It would save a good deal of trouble and many subcontractors, and subcontractors of subcontractors, would know that money had arrived on the site that day and it was time for them to get paid.
- Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Construction Contracts Bill 2010: Committee Stage (15 May 2013)
Seán Fleming: He could be kidnapped.