Mr. Niall McCutcheon:

I thank all the people who have participated in this discussion. My colleagues and I have found it very useful and we will take back to the Minister what we have heard today. Two Bills are under discussion here, the Workplace Relations Bill, which we hope to publish in October, and the Companies Bill, which is before the Dáil. We would welcome any suggested amendments to be considered in the context of those Bills.

In response to the specific questions about the time it takes to process cases and the target in the Minister’s plan of three months between receipt of a complaint and the scheduling of a hearing, it is a challenging target but it has already been achieved in the Rights Commissioner hearings. There has been huge progress there. At one stage not that long ago it took eight months to get an acknowledgement of a complaint being lodged to the Rights Commissioner service. At the beginning of this year this was down as low as five days. Significant productivity gains have been made and will continue to be made. It will be a challenging target but it is necessary for people to know in order to have confidence in the system that they will get an early hearing of their complaint.

I would also like to emphasise the option of alternative dispute resolution and mediation which will be open to all complaints under this system. At the moment this provides a very quick process in the Equality Tribunal which has had mediation for ten years. Mediations are scheduled within three months. It provides a completely confidential process in which all the issues can be put on the table. The outcome is a confidential agreement which is legally binding and enforceable. It provides, from the points of view of both the reasonable employer and the employee, an opportunity to resolve their differences and to repair the relationship without going into a more legal forum. We find in the Equality Tribunal that 50% of cases that go to mediation end there. They are resolved at mediation or the party taking the complaint realises that they do not have a strong case and withdraws. Sometimes the parties meet outside the mediation room and resolve the matter between themselves directly. I strongly recommend that all parties seriously consider the option of mediation or alternative dispute resolution which will be available under all headings of employment law under the new structure.

On the bond issue we will take all the points that have been raised here back to the Minister for consideration, including the proposals that the petitioner made.