Neale Richmond (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I do not know that is what this amendment necessarily does, but to be quite clear, I am more than comfortable with the timing. We are talking about a matter of weeks. The second working group will be meeting before the end of this month. We are already at 14 February - as we all probably woke up realising today - we have a European Council meeting in three weeks' time and the Belgian Presidency will be concluding on 1 July. I am more than happy to engage directly with the social partners and will bring this up at the meeting I have with them in the coming days. The timeframe is more than adequate, based on my 15-odd years' experience of working through European legislation and the European ordinary legislative process. There is absolutely scope here. I am not worried about a new Commission coming into play, effectively, in November. This can be done, as I said, by the conclusion of the Belgian Presidency in July.