Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

There are labour protections, and these are tracked by the Labour Court and the Workplace Relations Commission, WRC. The Deputy is asking for a formal review, which is what Deputy Bruton proposed. We have already given a commitment to the SME community to track this through our other business supports and business development agencies. If we need to assist, which we do regularly across many areas, we will consider the issue. I can revert to the Deputy on Report Stage on the question of building a formal review into the legislation. I believe it will be captured in the ministerial regulations. We can examine those to see if we can find a wording with which the Deputy agrees.

The Department engages regularly with all employer and employee representatives through many mechanisms regardless of whether they are in LEEF. The issue of who is in LEEF has been discussed for a long time. I would value interventions by all organisations as well as by the various committees that we have set up to review various elements. They all feed into this. Any legislation that we have introduced has been based on consultation that has been open to everyone. We will ensure that happens in this context. LEEF does not cover everything, but it is a useful process for dealing with issues like the work safely protocol. Everyone is involved in the consultations on legislation, though, and rightly so.