Mr. Mark O'Mahoney:

We also engaged with the University of Limerick research team when it was compiling the report. Whereas we limited our discussion with the team to low hours and zero-hours contracts, the subsequent report seemed to make a leap and ended up with a multitude of recommendations beyond the scope of zero-hours and low hours. We are concerned about some of the recommendations arising from the UL report.

I reiterate that I believe there is a conflation issue around the identification of the problem. It relates to conflating the number of people on low hours and zero-hours and conflating that with a problem. Undoubtedly, there are problems for a small percentage of people working on low hours and zero-hours. There are some employers abusing that and they should be addressed. However, to identify low hours and zero-hours as problems per seis a mistake. The first course of action that needs to be taken is to identify the problem we are trying to address. The second point is the question of new legislation and the appropriate way to proceed. The third point is the question of whether the proposed Bill is the right way to do it. In our view, it is not.