Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

First, the job losses that we are seeing across the technology sector are in companies that in most cases, certainly those I have spoken to, will be supporting those who are losing their jobs way beyond their statutory obligations in terms of financial support. That is a good thing. By and large, these are companies that can afford to do that. They should be looking after their workers in that way and, I think, they are. Likewise, with Argos, my understanding is that the company is going beyond what it is required by law in terms of statutory responsibilities around pay.

In terms of the current status of the other issues that the Deputy raised from an EU perspective, there is a high-level working group. It was established by the former Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Deputy Varadkar, in March 2021 to review the collective bargaining landscape in Ireland. They are due to make recommendations for improvements. Their final report was published last October. The group's recommendations rest on its recognition of the continued necessity to respect the autonomy of social partners in collective bargaining contexts. They also reflect the shared consensus that some existing industrial relations mechanisms already recognised as proportionate and necessary need improvement by means of statutory reform. The Department will now review that report, formulate proposals for its implementation in consultation with social partners and bring a memorandum to Government on implementation before the end of this year. The enterprise sub-group of the labour employer economic forum, LEEF, which is the group that has been doing that work, will oversee implementation of these recommendations. There is a process under way where we are looking at what we are required to do but there is a lot of consultation, as one would expect, given the presence of multinationals in Ireland.