Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I apologise in advance because I may have to leave immediately after this to attend a debate on the situation in Syria. I thank everybody for their contributions and submissions to this discussion, particularly John O’Sullivan. When his petition came before us it rang bells for many of us because we had seen similar situations occurring elsewhere. As John Douglas has said, it rang bells for me in respect of the situation in Connolly Shoes in Dún Laoghaire where, like Mr. O’Sullivan, people have been fighting this unacceptable situation in which employers seem to be able, with a large degree of impunity, to ignore the decisions made by the Employment Appeals Tribunal at the expense of workers. Something has to be done about this.

The big question for me is what precisely can we do and I would like the people who have made proposals to flesh out their suggestions. On the issue of the bond that Mr. O'Sullivan has proposed, how does he respond to the suggestion that this could become an unfair burden on employers as it creates a presumption of guilt on their part, or an unfair burden, because that is what IBEC seems to be saying? I would like to hear IBEC respond to this point because I do not believe that there are huge numbers of vexatious complaints. I do not think that people take complaints willy-nilly, for no reason at all. Mr. O'Sullivan might give us some evidence to back that up.

I ask Mr. Hegarty to give the committee some supporting evidence. I would like to hear the opinions of the trade unions on Mr. O'Sullivan's proposal about the bond or the insurance scheme as against what I think Mr. Hegarty seems to be suggesting that amendments should be made to the Companies Bill.