Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for attending and facilitating this discussion. I was not expecting him this morning so while he is here, I remind him that we are still waiting on the heads of the Bill for the Workplace Relations Commission, WRC. If he could get that to us as soon as possible, it would be much appreciated. I do not like to be in the position of waiving pre-legislative scrutiny as we all get a lot from it.

However, I do understand and accept the urgency in this situation. I welcome the Bill. I am not the only person in that position. At some point we have all referenced the need for examinership "lite", or some version of that, so this is good. However, I do have a couple of questions if that is okay. I may take the opportunity to follow up if that is in order as well.

Regarding speeding up the process, what is the estimated time saving involved? How much quicker is it anticipated that it will be in comparison to the current process? This leads to another question and if it is all right, I will take the two of them together. It is about the cost of it. Does the Minister of State have an estimated cost of the process at this point in the proceedings?

Head 52 relates to the costs and remuneration of process advisers. It indicates that they will use the resources of the company, but they might not exist. We are talking about small businesses, so we are not talking about places that would be massively overstaffed with administration and backroom staff. In the event that it is not there or that it is not forthcoming for whatever reason, could that lead to a situation whereby costs will escalate in a way that would not be desirable? Perhaps the Minister of State will respond to those questions first. I have a couple of other questions.