Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

That will be essential because human rights defenders and unions will be the eyes and ears. If this directive is done right, they will be the eyes and ears of this directive in every home. Ms Tunney is dead right to make that point. We are talking here predominantly although not exclusively about vulnerable women workers and nobody would be more vulnerable than a woman working in the home with very few protections in place.

Ms de Barra stated that, as the directive is currently constructed, 99% of EU businesses would be excluded from the new rules. I ask her to guess what we can aim for and what would be reasonable. We will all say 100% is reasonable and we will keep going until we reach that. In the context of this directive, I will be honest and say that the Government's record on workers' rights is not brilliant, yet it will negotiate this. What can we reasonably aim for in terms of coverage? Is there a gold standard? What is achievable and what can we realistically aim for in terms of the protections?