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

The Deputy and I agree that people can be forced to meet but not to engage in good faith or to agree, and I do not think they should be forced to do that in a democracy. Incentives and disincentives can be created, however, and I think that is what the report suggests, whereby the environment would incentivise people to engage in good faith, with disincentives where they do not.

As the Deputy will know better than I do given her background in the union movement, there are different systems in different countries. In some countries, it is quasi-judicial, and if agreement cannot be met, the parties go to a body similar to the Labour Court, which can impose an agreement on both the employer and the workers. We do not want go down that road because it would take away the democratic right of workers to have their ballot respected and take away the rights of employers, businesspeople, shareholders and board members to have the same agency.

We do not want to go down that route. We want to make sure it continues to be voluntarist.