Brian Hayes (Dublin South West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Senator is correct. The threshold in the current Bill is ¤50,000. I am of a mind to abolish the thresholds altogether so the regulations will apply to everyone. We have not decided a view on that issue, but the threshold will certainly be lower than ¤50,000. There is an argument for abolishing it altogether. The objective is to ensure these cases do not go to court. It is to work up an adjudication system which will arrive at some agreement for both suppliers and contractors. This system has worked well in the United Kingdom without thresholds and should work equally well here in our smaller market. Margins are very tight currently because of the reduction in cost of approximately one third in the total amounts for these contracts. I am minded to have no threshold, but we will wait to see the amendment.