Mr. Owen Reidy:

I appreciate the question. It is quite a thoughtful one. We are not suggesting that we are turning the world on its head by moving from voluntary to statutory. I want to stress that point because the directive talks about doing things in line with national practice. Whether it is health and safety legislation, information and consultation or protective disclosures, I have highlighted that we can do it without turning the world on its head. The point I would make is that when we talk about our system being voluntary, it is a case of for whom it is voluntary for who. It is voluntary for the employer to say that if we organise 90% of the workplace, it will or will not talk to a union but it is not voluntary for the workers. As I say, we must use the power of persuasion, which we sometimes do, and we must enlighten employers by saying that it makes sense to talk. Sometimes we do not talk, and we are left with having to force a strike, which is not the way we should be going in 2024. I want to stress that we are not talking about turning the voluntary system on its head. There are sectors of our economy that are not unionised where employers operate and offer good pay and conditions of employment and treat their workers very well. I have no issue with that. My concern is if workers wish to have access to collective bargaining, they should not be denied it as long as we can get over an agreed threshold. We are not talking about having collective bargaining in a company with 100 employees when we have four members. That is ridiculous. We are not advocating for that. That is a waste of our time and everyone's time. I am trying to be clear and nuanced. We are not trying to turn the world on its head and we are not trying to force employers to do certain things. We are trying to create the conditions where if their workers wish to have access to collective bargaining, the employers do not unilaterally deny them that. Do I think that if we transpose this directive, in 50 years time we will have 100% trade union density? No, I do not. We are not suggesting that but there are workers in various parts of the economy, and the UCD study shows this, who wish to have it. What we are saying is that the employers in those companies should take a more enlightened approach - a partnership approach - to work with us and use the mechanisms of the State. The directive clearly requires the State to do more.