Mr. Owen Reidy:

I worked in SIPTU for 18 years and we work very well with some employers but with a minority of employers there are multiple examples where we have tried to organise workplaces and the employer would insist on not having a union under any circumstances. They will use sophisticated tactics to isolate, marginalise, undermine and ultimately dismiss the person they see as the leader to try to cut the head off the snake so it falls apart. I have had much experience of that. It is very cheap to do that in Ireland because under unfair dismissals legislation, a worker gets one month's pay plus their loss of earnings. Therefore, if they find another job even if they have been found to have been dismissed, they can only get one month's pay. We are saying that for protected disclosures if whistleblowers are sacked, they can get up to five years' pay. Why should a workplace representative not get that? That legislative change can be done in line with national practice.

The Deputy asked about the Doherty report. My predecessor, Patricia King, and Maeve McElwee worked very closely and very hard on it. It is a very good and important report, but it has not been legislated for. The Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment has been dragging its heels. That report was signed off by Cabinet in September 2022. We are now coming into February 2024. It is to take away the vehicle that employers have for joint labour committees. It is to provide for a mechanism of what is called good faith engagement. It is fairly simple legislation. Our legal adviser gave the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment draft legislation it could use. We have a meeting tomorrow with the Ministers and we will see where we are at. We see that report forming the action plan. First, there is the transposition of the directive. Second, there is the framework of enabling conditions. The third part of that jigsaw is the action plan. The Doherty report was concluded before the text of the directive was concluded. It cannot presuppose that that is the transposition of the directive, albeit some people might like that.