Paul Gavan (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for their presentations, both of which made for very interesting reading. I am intrigued by the submission by the Law Society of Ireland. As Ms Hyde mentioned at the beginning, its members represent employers and trade unions across the board. I cannot help noticing that its submission, unlike that of Dr. Ryan, does not make reference to how to strengthen legislation for workers' rights. That is somewhat strange for an organisation that claims to be neutral on this. How did the representatives of the Law Society of Ireland miss the points that Dr. Ryan made or do they disagree with him? I specifically refer to his point on the notable omission in the current Bill of any protection from penalisation. As someone from Sinn Féin I accept this; we think that is an area that needs to be considered. He also referred to an amendment to the Unfair Dismissals Act to allow for redress for unfair dismissal. The Law Society of Ireland made a number of points here, but did not make a single point on how the Bill might be strengthened for workers. Why is that?