Quality in Public Procurement (Contract Preparation and Award Criteria) Bill 2021: Committee Stage
Seanad Éireann — 2022-05-18
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Paul Gavan (SF), Labour Panel

We are discussing an interesting topic. One of the frustrations that I had as a trade union official was that we had companies winning contracts to build schools that consistently disregarded Labour Court judgments and would not pay Labour Court judgments. When I brought this matter to the attention of Departments they basically said that there is a procurement process and there is nothing they could do. So the same company, which meted out horrendous abuse, particularly to foreign nationals in terms of the non-payment of wages, consistently won further contracts to build further schools. Such a situation is not good enough. One of the key criteria that we need to see the Government emphasise is respect for the industrial relations machinery of the State.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2022-05-18/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:50:28+00:00
Sitting date: 2022-05-18