Mr. Gerry Light:

Deputy Stanton has addressed a couple of issues with the statutory redundancy limits in the current legislation. That is certainly one of the areas that could be explored, aside from what we are discussing today. It could come under the remit of the parallel approach that has been adopted. I think my colleague has already commented that there is a very distinct delay, notwithstanding the complications that have been alluded to, and one of the reasons we are here considering Deputy Barry's Bill is, I think, that delay. The parallel process looks at company law and employment law. Within that context, one of the promises that were given, particularly within employment law, was that, in the first instance, a non-statutory expert group be set up. We are still waiting for that group to be set up, many months after the commitment was given by the Minister. There is a combination of things here that can be looked at and that will improve the lot of workers in the future. I would not rule out the suggestion Deputy Stanton has put to us as one of the areas that should be looked at.

Nobody in this room is a constitutional lawyer or an expert in that area. As for the arguments being made about the right to disassociate, I would argue that you should not be in any way disaffected when it comes to your rights in respect of a claim under what you believe to be, and what some would argue is or consider to be, depending on the circumstances in which it arises, a contractual right within employment law to the effect that if a redundancy situation is enshrined within the collective agreement - as I said, in particular circumstances - it constitutes a contractual entitlement as well..

Those are all the things we need to look at. Whatever comes from today's proceedings, we need to take a fresher and more intensive view of what is happening elsewhere with regard to trying to improve the lot of workers in circumstances similar to those we are discussing. The message should go out to the relevant Ministers that we really need to get our act together regarding the changes that are required to favour workers in respect of both company and employment law.