Paul Gavan (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for her response. I also thank her for her response on the Tipperary hostel workers issue. I look forward to receiving the interim report today.

The answer the Minister of State has given is comprehensive. It has been said clearly that companies in financial difficulty can continue to tender for public contracts. I have clear examples of companies that state they cannot make redundancy payments, which means that the workers are facing a significant financial loss, at least in terms of notice periods, and will have to wait for up to a year. It is infuriating to see the same company win a public service contract. Ultimately, the people who lose out are the workers. I have given two explicit examples of companies that are abusing the system. They are getting out of meeting their social insurance obligations and continuing to win major public contracts. The fact that one of them, in particular, does not even bother to turn up at the WRC because it assumes and knows that the taxpayer will foot the bill is not right. I ask the Department to look seriously at this. I will happily supply further details if it would be helpful.