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

Some of the discussion has moved on a little from what we were talking about, namely, banded hours, but I wish to comment on something Ms Callan said. Infrastructure is crucial, especially for our regional development. Broadband is the electricity of our generation and needs to be delivered. I have a few questions. I will say the same thing I said last week. I thank Ms Callan for her presentation but I believe she is trying to complicate what I believe is a simple Bill. The witnesses have not come here with any solution as to how they would solve the problem. Ms Callan mentioned anecdotal evidence. "Anecdotal" means not exactly reliable. I recently talked to people, including families, involved in low-pay work. They said banded hours would give them some kind of security and should mean they could get a loan and buy a car or get a mortgage from a bank. None of the witnesses has come with any solutions as to how we could work on this.

This is a simple Bill. Why are the witnesses complicating it? Ms Callan referred to the posters put up on walls and the need to have them in different languages and she complicated that aspect. That is a simple thing to do. Some companies do it already and they do use Google for the translations. Ms Callan said they would not do so, but I know companies that already do so because they have Polish staff. It takes them two minutes every month to do it. Ms Callan is complicating this. The Bill is simple. If the witnesses have amendments that would work, I think Deputy Cullinane himself said when he was here that he is open to accepting any sensible amendments to his Bill. However, we need to address the issue of people who are on if-and-when contracts, do not know when they will be working, cannot get loans and cannot plan their futures. I do not see the witnesses coming forward with any solution.