Maurice Quinlivan (Limerick City, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I supported this Bill in the Dáil and I support it going forward. It is not an abstract concept, we have all dealt with people who are on low contract hours and have precarious work.

We met some of them at the briefing in the AV room. One could not but be moved by the personal testimonies of people, how it affects them at work, how if they made a complaint their hours were cut and how they were not able to get loans or access basic services because they had no defined income. I have met a lot of stakeholders from the unions and the business community. I would like the Deputy to address some queries from the business community.

The Bill is basically to deal with "if and when" contracts. Can he explain to the committee how this will work? I know from dealing with workers' representatives, especially the Mandate trade union, that they are fully supportive of this Bill and wish to see it enacted. Members of the Government have said in the past that workers on 15 to 20 hours would get additional work. Is this the case with this Bill? My understanding is that many companies, especially in the retail sector, use banded hours already. Can the Deputy comment on that?