Mr. Owen Reidy:

Apart from the example the Deputy has cited, I cannot cite a range of others. However, we need to be proactive. The directive requires the State to promote and be an enabler of collective bargaining, for it to take a positive approach, and to say that if a company wants to be involved in public procurement, it has to be able to demonstrate and prove to us that it has not denied its employees the right to organise in a union, should they so wish. Ms McElwee made the point that people can join a union in Ireland. Of course they can but people want to join a union so that they get access to collective bargaining. They do not just join it for the craic. It is for a purpose. Employers still have the right in Irish law, and because of the public policy of successive Governments, to deny workers that right. Public procurement is a key lever if the State is to step up and honour the directive and to use it as a tool to promote collective bargaining. It is not to force or compel workers to join a union but to facilitate those workers who wish to, so that an employer can demonstrate that he or she has not denied his or her workers access to collective bargaining, if that is what they wish. It should be used as a lever.