Gerald Nash (Louth, Labour) | Oireachtas source

It can enter an enterprise-level agreement. One of the important provisions of this Bill is the establishment of that sort of approach, where individual enterprises can come to an agreement and register it with their own workers. That addresses one of the deficits identified through the courts in respect of deficiencies in previous legislation. I agree completely with the Senator when he makes reference to enforcement and compliance. If one looks at some of the measures that we are seeking to introduce in the Workplace Relations Bill, which we have discussed at length here over recent times and which relate to the use of compliance notices, fixed charge notices and new mechanisms for enforcing awards with adjudicators or in terms of Labour Court determinations, one can see that we want to have a similar suite of provisions available in this context to deal with issues that might arise under this legislation. However, there needs to be consistency, and compliance and enforcement are very important. Without proper enforcement and compliance, the legislation and its use will be degraded.