Mick Wallace (Wexford, Independent)
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I move amendment No. 57:

In page 239, line 25, after "members." to insert the following:"In addition to the primary duty owed to the company under section 224, the directors shall owe a general duty to its employees and to its members.".

We would not have companies if they did not accept that their primary duty is to make money because they would not survive if they did not. At the moment, saying that the directors shall have regard to employees is not a duty. While acknowledging that the primary duty of a company is to its members and to ensuring they are sustainable from a financial point of view, there should be more protection for employees and there should be a duty to them in the interests of corporate responsibility. Stipulating that the directors shall have regard to their employees has no strength because it does not represent a duty and is just a token gesture. If we were to include the employees, it would not mean that the employees would always be seen to be in the right in a dispute but it would give the courts an opportunity to interpret it as they saw fit depending on the information put before them.