Regina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

That is a valid point.

The ruling on direct provision arising from the court's ruling. A working group was established by the Minister for Justice and Equality, Deputy Charles Flanagan, a number of months ago to look at the outcome of that ruling. My officials sit on the working group, simply for the fact that whatever action comes from the working group has to acknowledge that with employment rights also come other rights. We need to be able to afford to be able to extend those rights to people. We will await the report of the working group.

The reason we are doing it is we acknowledge that if people get extended rights in one element it will impact on their rights in other elements of their daily lives. I will come back to the committee once that report has been issued and we might have a conversation about it.

The Senator said something I have been saying for years. We started this new phase of new politics in March last year. While it has received a lot of bashing over the past 18 months there is huge merit in recognising that nobody in this parliament has a monopoly on wisdom. I have said it before and I will say it again. Bringing forward legislation is Government's responsibility and role. I come back to the point Deputy Brady made about Deputy David Cullinane's Bill. Regardless of who is in government, if a Government ever finds itself in a position of not listening to the suggestions made by Opposition Senators or Deputies to improve the quality of legislation it brings forward, it is an exceptionally sad day. There is nobody in this House or the Seanad with a monopoly on wisdom. As long as I am in the privileged position of being able to bring forward legislation, I will make sure we listen. If there is ever a stage where we cannot do something that is being put forward, members will get an explanation as to why we cannot. We might not agree with each other but I will not be shy about explaining why and defending the reasons why we are doing what we are doing.

To come back to Deputy Brady's concerns, there are parts of Deputy Cullinane's Bill we do not agree with. It was elegantly expressed by the Minister of State, Deputy Pat Breen, when the deliberations of that committee were held. The engagement with University of Limerick was commissioned by my predecessor with responsibility for the employment law aspect, Senator Ged Nash. The results of that committee formed the deliberations on where we are as a State going forward with legislation to make sure we provide security for people in precarious and casualised employment situations. That is what this legislation will do. I will invite all parties and none to bring forward discussions, thoughts and views on potential amendments to the legislation once it is drafted and published towards the end of this year. My priority is to make sure the legislation is published and passed and that the people in those casualised and precarious working situations enjoy the same employment protections that other people in far more structured settings do. That is the aim of the Bill; it is certainly not to preclude real casual work which is what the Deputy's suggestion would do. I do not want to bring forward a law that would outlaw the kind of work done by the average 17, 18 or 19 year old who is getting a couple of hours work here or there or some work in the summer, which is genuinely casual work. I do not want to outlaw the kind of work that the vast majority of our younger people and students rely on to get them through college.

I welcome the committee's deliberations. We will deliberate the legislation in committee once it is drafted, either this committee or the jobs committee, under its new name of the Committee on Business, Enterprise and Innovation.