Willie O'Dea (Limerick City, Fianna Fail)

I move amendment No. 2:

In page 5, line 26, after "agency" to insert the following:

", but the following shall not be deemed to be agency workers—

(a) employees of contractor companies; and

(b) limited liability companies where the worker is also the beneficial owner of the company".

As I said on Committee Stage, I do not have strong feelings about this amendment. I will not lie awake tonight tossing and turning about whether employees of contractor companies are designated agency workers. During the debate on Committee Stage I asked the Minister if it was intended to include these categories of employees as agency workers. He told me he had been advised that they were not agency workers under the terms of the Bill. I have made some inquiries in the meantime with legal people who say there is a doubt about the matter. They have explained ways and means - I will not go into them now - by which the Bill could be interpreted as including these categories. If it is the Minister's intention that they will not be covered by the Bill, as he indicated on Committee Stage, it might be safer to explicitly say this.

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