Peter Burke (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael)

I thank Deputy Conway-Walsh for her amendment. This amendment would require me to put in place an appeal mechanism in circumstances where certain cohorts do not have access to an appeal to the Workplace Relations Commission, WRC. In general, where an employee believes the Minister has failed to properly pay arrears of wages, contractual sick pay or holiday pay, this decision can be appealed to the WRC. Section 9 restricts this appeal mechanism in very limited circumstances and for good reason. The first limitation applies where the employer has entered into an insolvency arrangement within the meaning of the Personal Insolvency Act 2012.

In such cases, the employee has already engaged with the relevant insolvency arrangement procedure. This is a separate statutory process under the supervision of the superior courts. The debts owed to the employee and the amounts the employer will pay to that employee under the terms of the insolvency arrangement are confirmed through this statutory process. These court-supervised terms should not be subject to further review by the WRC, including an appeal that would risk undermining the courts and statutory processes.

The second limitation applies where employees are using the new deemed insolvent process and the debts claimed are entirely disputed by their former employer. In this case, it is important to emphasise the employee has access to the WRC. The issue here is who the appropriate respondent is. The employee will need to make a complaint to the WRC against the employer to establish that the debts are genuine. Where an employee goes through the process and receives a WRC adjudication confirming the debt, they will then be able to apply for payment of this debt under the deemed insolvent process. It would be futile and could be hazardous to provide a further appeal by the Minister in this scenario. There is already an appeal route for a decision by the WRC and the Labour Court. If the Minister intervened, it would require him or her to overrule established processes that could undermine the independence of these bodies.

I appreciate that the points made by the Deputy are nuanced. However, my officials will ensure that relevant processes available to employees are clearly signposted when this process becomes live.