Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael)
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I am not sure why Senator Gavan and his party colleagues repeatedly try to question that the legislation is not strong enough. I disagree with him on that. He often gives the impression people will lose out or suffer if they avail of our legislation. That is not true. He gave the same impression, namely, that the legislation was not in place to protect people, on the last occasion we discussed this area in Seanad. We have extremely strong protections in our employment law. While it may not be his intention, sometimes he makes comments that would scare people off using the law we have in place. The WRC advises me it has the laws, inspectors, systems and processes in place to deal with these concerns when they are flagged to it. Its inspectors are able to go out on site and investigate. I do not know why the Senator consistently gives the impression that people will suffer if they bring forward concerns or complaints in this respect. That is not the case. Our legislation is in place to protect workers.