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

I appreciate that but there is something more that the State could do. If the Minister of State is talking about the regulation employment agreement that exists within the security sector, he is also talking about the same people who are down in the courts trying to frustrate this process being in receipt of lucrative Government contracts. A time is coming when the State will have to recognise its power in this area and not the soft power of legislating for voluntary arrangements, which is fine. The State is a big spender and purchaser of services and it really angers people when they see a company that is in dispute over the base minimum terms and entitlements under a registered employment agreement. On the one hand those employers are engaging, to a degree, with the third part industrial relations machinery that is funded by the State, and then on the other hand they are getting Government contracts. People cannot understand that and I cannot understand it. I find that practice to be abhorrent.

I take issue with what the Minister of State said about self-employment. I could not tell the Minister of State the number of times, particularly when representing home helps-----