Pat Breen (Clare, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Chairman and other members, particularly Deputy Tom Neville, who is always here. I thank him for his involvement. He has a particular interest in the area of employment and well-being in this area.

I welcome the work being done by the committee not just on legislation, but in respect of various other areas it covers. The committee members visited Waterford last week. It is good that committees travel to see exactly what is happening on the ground in respect of the workings of my Department. We value the work the committee does, particularly the work on the legislation in question. As I stated before, the legislation was flawed but we will have our legislation ready before Christmas. I will welcome the committee’s scrutiny of that and its work thereon. The legislation will be fair and balanced and it will take on board the needs of the employers but also the employees, who are important also. One has to have balance to ensure we can sustain jobs in this country.

We connect with and work a lot with both employers' and employees' groups to make sure we can put good legislation in place. Good legislation takes time. The idea for this came from the University of Limerick study. The group in question was independent. Obviously, we have to take on board the concerns of both employers and employees. This is why we want to come up with balanced legislation that suits both. This includes prohibiting zero-hour contracts in most circumstances, ensuring employees are better informed of the nature of employment arrangements, and ensuring that workers on low-hour contracts who constantly work more hours each week than are provided for in their contracts are placed in a band that better reflects the reality of the hours they work.

We will also strengthen the anti-victimisation provisions for workers. All of these measures will be included in the Bill which I look forward to debating when it is brought before the House and the committee.