Mary Butler (Waterford, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Let me clarify by reading from section 3, to which I referred earlier. It states:

A worker, or his or her trade union or a representative acting on his or her behalf, shall be entitled after a period of no less than 6 months of continuous employment with his or her employer, to request in writing of his or her employer to be moved to an increased weekly band.

It states quite clearly that a worker would have to be in work for six months. The Minister of State would not be privy to this because we would have discussed it with Deputy Cullinane earlier. Most of our discussions have focused on whether it should be six, nine, 12 or 18 months. Deputy Cullinane accepted that he would move it to nine months. Deputy Niall Collins pushed for 12 months.

I believe stipulating 18 months would have adverse implications for students. A student spending 12 months in Limerick, Cork, Dublin, Waterford or wherever might be on a low-hour contract or an if-and-when contract for 12 months but might end up studying somewhere else the following year and might have to go into employment in another section for another 12 months. For example, my daughter has been in Mary Immaculate College in Limerick for two years. She comes back to Waterford to work at the weekend. If she decided to work in Limerick and then went on for her masters in Cork or Galway, it would have an effect. I agree with Deputy Niall Collins that we should have a 12-month cycle.