Mattie McGrath (Tipperary South, Independent)
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To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if any concerns have been conveyed to him in relation to non-payment, underpayment or late payment for work done on projects funded by his Department since his appointment in March 2011. [56345/12]

Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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My Department although it is the primary funding agency, is generally not the contracting authority on building projects in the Education Sector. As such it has no legal authority to intervene in legally binding contracts involving third parties.

In general when bodies in receipt of funding from my Department seek payment by way of grant aid, my Department processes payments in time to enable for those organisations to meet their contractual obligations.

A building project is a complex arrangement of contractual relationships between the client, the main contractor, specialist sub-contractors, domestic sub-contractors, suppliers of materials, suppliers of plant etc. In general all sub-contractors employed on education sector building projects are employed directly by the Main Contractor or indirectly by the Main Contractor through other sub-contractors. It is a matter for all sub-contractors to agree terms and conditions and a schedule of payments with the Main Contractor as their direct employer. The Deputy may be aware that the Construction Contracts Bill 2010 as currently drafted, provides statutory arrangements for payments under construction contracts, including providing for interim payments, thus reducing a payee's exposure to non-payment, and by introducing a new mechanism for the swift resolution of payment disputes through a process of adjudication. The sponsoring Department of this Bill is the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform which is best placed to expand on the provisions of this Bill.