Fine Gael TD for Mayo, Michelle Mulherin, has welcomed the passing of the Construction Contracts’ Bill which delivers on the Programme for Government commitment to introduce new legislation to protect all small building subcontractors denied payments from bigger companies.
According to Deputy Mulherin the Bill will provide statutory arrangements for interim or staged payments to be made to payees thus reducing a payee’s exposure to non-payment. This will help end the situation where contractors are being “strung along” by parties who don’t have the means or the intention of paying them.
“The Bill also introduces a new mechanism for the swift resolution of payment disputes through a new process of adjudication. The new adjudication process will deal quickly with disputes about payments and result in a binding decision, under which payment, if any, must be made to the party named in the decision. Furthermore, the thresholds for a case to qualify for the adjudication process has been reduced to €10,000. It was previously €50,000 for public contracts and €200,000 for private sector contracts,” the Ballina based deputy explained.
“I would like to pay tribute to Minister for Justice, Alan Shatter TD, for advancing this legislation and indeed to Senator Feargal Quinn who initiated the Private Member’s Bill on the issue and who has pursued it so rigorously. Having lobbied Government ministers including Ministers Shatter and Noonan in relation to this issue, I am delighted to see that it being passed. I believe that this will help bring an end to the unjust situation where contractors are going out of business as a result of non-payment.”
