At the close of business last night Deputies Conway-Walsh, Calleary and Ring raised the problems in Mayo in regard to the Oweninny wind farm. The reason Deputy Ring is beside me is we are standing in solidarity with the people who have worked on that wind farm installing up to 31 turbines, three or four of which remain to be installed. There are contractors in Mayo who are owed €1.3 million and €1.4 million. Funnily enough, years ago when this country did not have a lot of money some of these contractors were deemed fit to build airports. They were good enough to carry out roadworks throughout the country. Ironically, following the appointment of the receiver, the ESB and Bord na Móna, which have responsibility for this project, have decided to bring in people from the North to finish the job. I refer to two northern companies, one of which has an association with a large corporate here, but the other has none.

There are companies employing a lot of people in the west of Ireland. Basically, Roadbridge was a name. They had people with suits looking after the job but the work on the ground was being done by what we would call local subcontractors. At least €4 million or €5 million is owed to those subcontractors. It must be borne in mind also that as the ESB is connected to the Government, as is Bord na Móna, we are talking about taxpayers' money.

While we talk about the future and the wind energy future, I put it to the Minister that it is disgusting and something is not right in this situation. Those subcontractors who had put in the work, joined together with the Roadbridge workers and the contractors that were supplying everything, including materials and machines, to put in a proposal to the so-called director who was over this wind farm belonging to the ESB. Ironically enough, Deputy Ring and I have been trying to make contact for two weeks, going through the liaison and through the channels we are supposed to go through, to try to contact this person for a meeting. Whoever they think they are, or how high up they think they are, they do not think it is good enough to even come back to us to say that they will have a meeting. A proposal has been made by the group of people who are well fit to do the work. The bottom line is that it was this group that built the 27 turbines that have been built up to now. Those companies will not survive if they lose €1.3 million or €1.4 million on one job. I would like the ESB and Bord na Móna to hear clearly the point that on the bottom of the dockets for the goods and services that were supplied, it says these are owned by those companies until they are paid for. Let ESB and Bord na Móna hear this clearly.

Then they insult this group of people by bringing down other contractors to look at finishing the job. There is a retention fund of €4 million to €5 million left. There are solutions to this. I acknowledge the work done by Matthew Lynch in the office of the Minister, Deputy Varadkar, who liaised with us and with the Irish Plant Contractors Association in the past few weeks to help sort out the problems for workers. This is not in my constituency but all of those Deputies and I are very clear: let nobody think that they are going to come from the North and basically turn over companies in the west of Ireland who are well capable of doing the job. The Government must intervene.

We are well over time Deputy.

I am asking the Minister whether he and his Government will intervene with the ESB and Bord na Móna to bring a bit of common sense to the situation and bring some of these so-called directors back to ground?

I thank Deputy Fitzmaurice for raising the issue. I also acknowledge the interest of Deputies Ring, Dillon and Calleary, and I am sure others-----

And others.

-----including Deputy Conway-Walsh.

The Minister is getting as bad as the Taoiseach.

I am referring to the people who have raised it with me, if the Deputy wants me to give a straight answer.

I acknowledge the enormous impact the appointment of the receivers has had on the employees. Deputy Fitzmaurice has recognised the work of the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment and the work of the Department of Social Protection, in ensuring that the employees are being looked after in that regard.

Deputy Fitzmaurice raised specifically the knock-on impact on subcontractors. I am aware the clarification was issued by the receiver to Roadbridge staff on Tuesday of last week, following engagement with the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment. The receiver confirmed to employees that there is no statutory restriction on employees taking up additional employment during the statutory redundancy consultation period in circumstances where they are not expected to attend the workplace. Provided they do not resign from their current employment, there should be no obstacle to retaining their statutory redundancy entitlements.

As a Government we are examining the range of projects that Roadbridge has been involved in from a public capital works point of view, and in relation to the national development plan. There is, for example, a housing project in Moyross, Limerick. There is a road project from Coonagh to Knockalisheen and Roadbridge had been appointed as the contractors for the N5 Ballaghaderreen to Scramoge road project, where a site compound had been set up and some subcontractors had started to mobilise.

I understand that the Oweninny wind farm is a 50:50 joint venture between the ESB and Bord na Móna. Given that receivers have now been appointed, that is now a regulated process which must take its course under the Companies Acts. I have no doubt but that the contractors concerned will obtain their own independent advice but we would, of course, encourage engagement and discussions. We recognise that the appointment of receivers can have seriously adverse effects on contractors, many of whom are operating in an environment of rising costs and quite low margins. We want to see all of these contractors continue in business. The receivership is a statutory process that is regulated by law. The receivers are now in place and must continue with their work over the period ahead. Certainly, as a Government, we would encourage discussions and engagement between all of the relevant parties to see if a resolution could be identified.

I thank the Minister for what he has said. I acknowledge the work by the Departments of Social Protection, and Enterprise, Trade and Employment. We are moving to phase 2 on this issue and I recognise the point about the receiver process. Is it not ironic, however, that the ESB was able to bring down two Northern contractors to look at finishing the job? The job at the moment is standing, as the Minister will understand, as when someone goes into receivership. Yet they were able to bring two different northern contractors to look at finishing this job while they had people well able to do the job right beside them. There is something amiss in what is going on with this. The receivers seem to be parked to the side. If someone was owed €1.5 million or €1.25 million, should someone from the receiver's office, from the ESB or from Bord na Móna not ring that person? It is the least they could do.

The Department of the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, covers climate action. We need the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment to get involved in resolving this issue. I am making this very clear and Deputy Ring will echo what I am saying. Let no one think that they would be going in with diggers from Northern Ireland-----

That will not happen.

-----down to the Oweninny wind farm, while the contractors down there are owed €4 million. There is a retention fund and I know what retention is. I saw the contract, to be quite frank, and if I was a receiver I would worry.

I put it to the Minister that someone needs to talk to the CEO of the ESB to get him back to realism in order that the contractors in the west of Ireland and the employees will be left working.

The Deputy has made his point.

As the Deputy is aware, both bodies are commercial State bodies under the remit of the Department of Environment, Climate and Communications. The Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, will be alerted to the fact that Deputy Fitzmaurice has raised this on the floor of the House today. I am sure the Minister will respond directly to the Deputy in that regard also.

Deputy Fitzmaurice has made clear the strength of feeling that there is on the ground about this issue. It is always incredibly difficult when a receivership process is entered into. There can be losers and there can be victims. We hear the Deputy's strong desire to ensure that the local contractors, who have been part of this important local project, are not among those victims. All that I can do is ask, on behalf of the Government, that there be engagement between all of the relevant parties involved here. Our first priority was to ensure that the employees were looked after and that their rights were vindicated, and I believe that the relevant Departments of worked together in that regard. We are also concerned, of course, about the outcome in all of this for the subcontractors concerned. I hope that their needs and their situation will be taken into account, albeit recognising that this is a statutory process now that is governed by law.