Terence Flanagan (Dublin North East, Independent)
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67. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform the position regarding the signing of the commencement order and enactment of the various sections of the Construction Contracts Act; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [26246/14]

Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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The Construction Contracts Bill passed all stages of the Houses of the Oireachtas in July 2013 and was signed into law on the 29 July 2013.  The enactment of the legislation marked a significant step towards the Programme for Government commitment to introduce new legislation to protect small building subcontractors that have been denied payments from bigger companies.

The implementation of the Act requires two further elements to ensure the legislation will operate as intended.  The first; a comprehensive code of practice for the conduct of adjudication, has been the subject of consultation with key stakeholders. The final draft of the code of practice was circulated to stakeholders in March.

The second element requires the establishment of a panel of adjudicators and a chair of that panel to be appointed by the Minister of Public Expenditure and Reform.  The chair of the panel will appoint an adjudicator where parties to a payment dispute (that has been referred to adjudication under the Act) fail to agree on an adjudicator between them.

Detailed proposals for the structure for the panel, its set up and operation are complete.  However it was recently decided to retain responsibility for the administration of the Act within my Department.  This poses challenges in respect of this Department s role, through the Office of Government Procurement, in publishing the public works contracts which are also covered by the Act.

Officials are currently considering what further steps may be taken to ensure that potential conflicts of interest do not arise should a payment dispute under a public works contract be referred to the chair of the panel for the appointment of an adjudicator.  Once this aspect is resolved stakeholders will be invited to respond to the proposed structure for the ministerial panel of adjudicators.  Once the subsequent appointment process to the panel is complete the Act will be commenced.