Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I agree with Deputy Calleary that the employment numbers today were encouraging, with 58,000 additional people at work.

The public sector continued to shed about 4,000 workers in the period while almost 62,000 additional people are at work in the private sector, in the sectors which are strongly export oriented. It shows that the economy is making a transition to the sectors that are sustainable for the long term.

It is not clear at this point whether an agreement can be secured with regard to the posting of workers directive. Two issues have been the bone of contention, one being the notion of the number of controls that member states can require a company to provide and the second is this issue of joint and several liability. The Irish approach is the concern that if joint and several liability is imposed, it is imposing on the primary contractor the responsibility for activities of another guilty party, so to speak. Our approach has been to enforce directly against any subcontractor who is in breach of the employment rights of workers. The directive seeks to create a new liability. There are questions as to how this risk would be administered and managed. A number of member states have concerns that an additional regulatory burden is being created in this area. The other item is less contentious and is probably an issue about deciding the number of controls to be permitted.

In reply to Deputy Calleary, we have been reviewing a number of alternatives to bank lending. I know that Deputy Calleary has an interest in crowdfunding. The State bodies joint working group on access to finance is looking at a number of examples from other member states and it is liaising with other countries to see what can be done. We have instruments which are partly funded by the European Investment Bank, some of which have been successful while others not so. They are involved with microfinance. We continue to experiment and to develop initiatives in this field. As the Deputy acknowledges, we will need long-term alternatives to bank lending. The banks will not return to the role they exercised in the past and we need to allow a number of flowers to bloom. This is our approach in the search for new alternatives. This issue was also raised at the global network.

On the quality framework for traineeships, we will present a proposal on 4 December 2013.