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

I ask Deputies Joan Collins and Clare Daly to withdraw the amendment to enable us to meet tonight, tomorrow or as soon as we can for one reason. Deputy Willie O'Dea hit the nail on the head - the Bill is specifically to address issues felt by people who are in precarious employment, particularly low paid workers. The outcome will affect every worker in the country. What is being proposed to fix what I agree is an issue would have an impact on the entire working population and could be overly onerous and restrictive for some businesses and people's ability to run them. Can we meet and talk about how we could word it to address the specific issue the Deputies are trying to address? If one runs a business and has extra hours available, rather than having to employ somebody new and meet all of the associated costs, why not just give the extra hours to someone? There are specific industries which are so mean-spirited that they specifically do not do so. I would like to be able to address that issue without penalising other businesses in being able to take on somebody extra with a different skillset who they might need. We will have a look at the wording in order that we can address the specific issue the Deputies are trying to address without imposing restrictions on other businesses which are not mean-spirited because the specific amendment would have an impact on every employer, as opposed to the ones the Deputies are trying to address.