Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)

I move amendment No. 51:

In page 76, lines 11 to 25, to delete all words from and including "section" in line 11 down to and including "paragraph (b)" in line 25 and substitute the following:

"this Act or under section 39(17)(e) of the Redundancy Payments Act 1967 as applied to this Act by section 29(7)".

The purpose of this amendment is twofold. It is linked to the amendment I have just discussed. It is a drafting amendment to ensure that section 77 creates an offence and section 78 provides the punishment. Second, I seek to provide for the maximum available penalty, including imprisonment, for all offences under the Act. Section 78(1) provides only for a fine for offences mentioned in section 29(4)(e) or section 77(1). A number of the offences such as failure to make a risk assessment could be serious and may have serious implications for workers and warrant a significant penalty, including imprisonment. The Bill provides for the soft option of a fine for such offences of not more than €3,000. That is inadequate in all circumstances.

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