Ms Wendy Gray:

The purpose of the code of practice is that there would be a written guideline agreed in a consultative process.

For example, the Tánaiste launched a right to disconnect last year. The WRC conducted various negotiations with unions and employer representative bodies to set out guidance and best practice to help employers to roll out the legislation in full compliance and also to help employees to understand what their rights are. The Deputy is right in saying that the code is not an offence in itself. Section 29 of the Workplace Relations Commission Act provides that in any proceedings before a court, the Labour Court or the WRC, a code of practice shall be admissible in evidence, including any provision of the code which appears to the court to be relevant to any of the questions arising in the proceedings. They are useful and helpful. We can look at including all the different aspects that the unions and employer bodies deem to be helpful in the code when it is being drafted over the next months.