Alice-Mary Higgins (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 15:

In page 13, line 14, to delete “or”.

Amendment No. 15 is a technical amendment to ensure the subsequent amendments are grammatically correct.

Amendment No. 16 seeks to bring more accountability. The 50-employee threshold for the creation of internal reporting channels would not apply. A company would not have an exemption from the reporting channels just because it had 30 or 40 employees if it is performing a public contract with a value of more than €1 million. The Minister will be aware that I have taken a keen interest in public procurement and have had constructive engagement with some of his colleagues on how we might strengthen, improve and reform equality in public procurement. The crucial principle is that the public duty in respect of equality and human rights, for example, transfers on to procurement.

Extraordinary financial issues have been highlighted by whistleblowers in the past. With my Joint Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach hat on, I understand there may be an implication for the State with a contract worth €1 million or more. That the company performing that contract has 20, 30 or 40 employees should not be a reason not to require a reporting channel in respect of whistleblowing. In terms of due diligence but also in terms of how much public money is spent, it is really important that the companies getting large contracts have internal reporting channels in respect of whistleblowing so that we can be confident they have mechanisms to identify issues early.

I urge the Minister to consider that practical amendment. None of us wants to be constantly fixing issues after the fact and reviewing what went wrong. This means there would be a flagging system for concerns built in for those who are getting contracts above a threshold. I have specified contracts of €1 million; it probably should apply to any company with a State contract. I have sought to place it at a reasonably high threshold and close to the thresholds under the EU procurement directives.

Amendment No. 17 would ensure that the 50-employee threshold for creating internal reporting channels would not apply to a company with an annual turnover of more than €1 million. In the first case I have specified companies with a public contract worth more than €1 million. I know that €1 million might not seem like much in the scale of some companies but it is a lot compared with most small businesses. It is important that they would be required to have accountability. A company with that scale of business should have the capacity to put in place appropriate reporting channels. We know of companies in Ireland with very few employees but which have been associated with bad practices.On the international level, the Minister will be aware of the debates that are happening at the moment around due diligence legislation in the EU. There is a concern that only 1% of companies in the EU came under the due diligence legislation because of some of the thresholds involved. Companies which have been highlighted in respect of supply chain abuses include the Correjón coal mine in Colombia. It technically has a very small number of employees even though it is linked to substantial human rights abuses. It is important to highlight big issues that emerge. There is a capacity issue when we consider the effect on every corner store. However, a company with major money, and dealing in major money, should be able to include the due diligence of an internal reporting structure.

I note that during the debate around the Gender Pay Gap Information Act there was some discussion of the fact that size-based thresholds should not be the only measure to determine where scrutiny is needed.