Paul Gavan (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Commissioner and thank him for attending. It is great to have him here. This is a very useful change. I want to pick up on a few topics raised by the Commissioner in his speech, on which I am really interested to hear his responses.

The Commissioner mentioned that there are many traditionally underpaid, difficult jobs which fail to attract new workers and, at the same time, that workers are increasingly demanded better conditions and better pay. I agree wholeheartedly with that. I do not know if the Commissioner is aware that Ireland is an outlier in Europe in that it is one of only two countries that does not have a statutory right to collective bargaining. That is a major problem for us. When it comes to workers demanding better conditions and better pay, the only means of doing that is through collective bargaining which, as I said, in Ireland we do not have a statutory right to. In his role as Commissioner, will Mr. Schmit defend the upcoming directive on adequate minimum wages in the EU, in particular the collective bargaining aspect of the directive from aggressive lobbying? I fear that this directive will not be binding. I would be please to have the Commissioner's reassurance that the issue of collective bargaining will be fully included and that he will resist the aggressive lobbying to ensure that it will be binding rather than just a recommendation.