Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

We are expecting an interim report in July. I have not seen it yet so I do not know what will be in it. It probably has not been written yet but I would hope the working group would complete its work in the autumn or certainly before the end of the year. It is a complicated area, as the Deputy will be aware. I have brought together the employers, the unions and the Government to review our collective bargaining legislation and industrial legislation both in light of the recent Supreme Court judgment and European developments with regard to collective bargaining rights to decide what we can do and how we can move forward. Ideally, I would prefer to move forward in partnership with the unions and employers agreeing on a way forward. The recent Supreme Court decision is helpful in upholding the right and authority of the democratically elected Parliament to have sectoral employment orders.

The areas that are least organised, where people are probably most vulnerable to low pay and insecure employment, are in those kinds of sectors where there would, traditionally, have been joint labour committees, JLCs, and sectoral employment orders, SEOs. There is a chance to move forward in that regard. The group is meeting. I have met the chair but I do not have any outputs from the report yet. I look forward to seeing the report.