Mr. David Joyce:

I will begin and Dr. Bambrick can chip in. Towards 2016 was the title of the last social partnership agreement which was agreed in 2008 or 2009. I do not remember exactly, but it was a number of years ago. Of course, it was never fully implemented because we had the financial crisis and all that transpired from there. Therefore the agreement fell into abeyance but it is the only target on the public record. We hope that there will be movement towards it. The Deputy is correct that 50 labour inspectors in completely inadequate for the size of our labour market now. It has long been recognised that an increase is needed. Getting to 90 would be a start and then we will see where we go from there.

I do not have the figure to hand of the average times of complaints. I do know that serious efforts were made to improve the system through the overhaul of those bodies. However, the Deputy is right that a body charged with hearing cases right across the employment field but also in equal status cases etc. needs huge resources. It is a challenging environment for people to take any case into and of course justice delayed is justice denied.

Obviously we work to try and ensure that cases do not reach that stage. We try to solve issues in workplaces through negotiation and representations etc. However, for people who decide that they have reached the end of that possibility, the WRC should be a place they can go to ensure their rights are vindicated.