Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 12 June 2013
229. Deputy John Lyons asked the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport if he will include social clauses for the long-term unemployed in the transport projects announced as part of the €150 million extra in capital expenditure for 2013 and 2014; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [28255/13]
View answerI am broadly supportive of a ‘social clause’ that would result in more local residents and people from the Live Register being employed on Government capital projects. Work is being done on this matter on a ‘whole of government’ level. As the Deputy will understand, there may be issues with competition, the European internal market and other legal issues. Moreover, it is not straightforward. For example, a construction contractor may have five people working for them who will lose their jobs if they do not get a new contract. There is a risk that they could all lose their jobs if, for example, the contract they might have won was given to another contractor willing to take one person on from the Live Register. Rather than reducing the Live Register, it might just result in more employment churn if the clause is not well designed.
With regard to local and regional roads, the improvement and maintenance of such roads is the statutory responsibility of each local authority, in accordance with the provisions of Section 13 of the Roads Act 1993. Works on those roads are funded from local authorities' own resources supplemented by State road grants. As a result of this recent initiative I am in a position to allocate an extra €50 million in 2013 for the maintenance and rehabilitation of road surfaces on regional and local roads. The selection of individual schemes to be funded from this additional allocation is a matter for the relevant local authority.
With regard to national roads, as Minister for Transport, Tourism & Sport, I have responsibility for overall policy and funding in relation to the national roads programme. The planning, design and implementation of individual road projects is a matter for the National Roads Authority (NRA) under the Roads Acts 1993 to 2007 in conjunction with the local authorities concerned. I understand that the National Development Finance Agency is reviewing the potential for including social clauses in future PPP projects.
