Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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Question 73: To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform the likely timescale for the enactment of the Construction Contracts Bill; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [12937/12]

Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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The Programme for Government contains a commitment to introduce new legislation to protect small building subcontractors that have been denied payments from bigger companies. In this regard, my colleague Minister of State Mr Brian Hayes has been working with Senator Feargal Quinn to develop the Senator's private members' Construction Contracts Bill – which had passed all stages in the Seanad and had moved onto the Dáil order paper - into a robust piece of legislation.

In order to address a number of issues that were raised during the consultation on the Bill a Regulatory Impact Assessment (RIA) was carried out. It found that legislation is desirable to improve payment practices and to allow swift resolution of payment disputes by way of adjudication, allowing projects to be completed without wasting time and money in litigation. The RIA was completed and published last September. The Report is available on my Department's website: www.per.gov.ie/reports. Following the RIA, Minister Hayes brought proposals to progress this legislation to Government last week. These proposals have been agreed by Government and it is expected that the legislation will proceed in the Dáil shortly. It is essential that the solution to this issue needs to be balanced so as to avoid imposing regulatory or cost burdens on parties in dispute, the State or others.