Arthur Morgan (Louth, Sinn Fein)

It is fine that regulations are to be drawn up but we should know when because this blunt instrument may come into effect long before they are available.

The Minister of State said he consulted the Irish Council for Civil Liberties. The council said that section 13(1)(c) is not compatible with the European Convention on Human Rights. I wonder what the Irish Council for Civil Liberties said to the Minister of State. Did it change its view on this section? If so, that would be a significant move and I would like to hear the outcome of the consultation. We all know what can happen at consultations.

My amendment seeks to delete that section. I accept the point that it is a blanket exclusion. I opted for that because a blanket exclusion would be more appropriate and we can come back to it on another occasion with a proper amendment when the full detail in terms of reasonableness of the approach to this issue has been teased out and agreed between employers' organisations and trade unions, as well as other agencies such as the Irish Council for Civil Liberties. This is much too bland to be accepted.

The words "appropriate, reasonable and proportionate" sound good but they refer only to the test, not to the conditions under which the test could be required. That is a fundamental point because any test could meet those criteria but the person might be called to have that test under unreasonable or inappropriate conditions, which, for example, raises the issue of invasion of privacy. This also involves a major issue of the dignity of workers that is not fully recognised under this paragraph. That is why I am so concerned about it.

I am disappointed the Department did not make a greater effort to find some way by amendment to ameliorate this draconian section. If this Bill is passed workers' rights will have suffered a grievous blow, which is worrying for all of us.

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