Ms Joanne Hyde:

The Law Society of Ireland and in particular its employment and equality law committee welcomes the opportunity to address the committee on this important legislation. The relevant committee has approximately 25 practitioners, all experts in the area of employment law. We act for employers, employees, trade unions and employer representative groups. On matters of policy, we have remained neutral in respect of this legislation, as we do on other legislation. We have limited our observations to legal issues we have identified, as has Dr. Ryan.

I will ask my colleague and co-member, Mr. Neville, to address those in detail.