Emmet Stagg (Kildare North, Labour)
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Question 105: To ask the Minister for Finance the steps he has taken to ensure that public service contracts are awarded only to those companies that meet minimum standards in terms of pay, working conditions and pension entitlements, in view of the disclosures of underpayments to foreign workers; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [19294/06]

Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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Public procurement guidelines issued by my Department require contracting authorities to ensure that tenderers have regard to minimum pay and other legally binding industrial or sectoral agreements when preparing tenders and that tender documents should have an appropriate reference to this.

Regulations to transpose recently revised EU Directives on public procurement, currently being finalised, will require contracting authorities to indicate to tenderers where information on obligations relating to employment protection and working conditions legally in force in Ireland may be obtained. Tenderers will then be requested to indicate that in drawing up their tenders they have taken these obligations into account. Contracting authorities will be required to disregard any tenderer that fails to indicate compliance with this requirement.

New draft forms for construction contracts, which are the subject of consultation with the construction industry, include provisions that require contractors to ensure that pay and conditions of employment comply with the law and are not less favourable than the terms of the Registered Employment Agreements for those employees to whom the agreements apply. The new draft contracts also include a provision which gives some support to strengthening enforcement arrangements in the construction sector.