Tony Killeen (Clare, Fianna Fail)

The purpose of paragraph (b) of the definition of "employer" is to deal with informal employment arrangements. I refer, for example, to instances where an employer uses staff from another company for maintenance work or temporary purposes. In such circumstances, the employer using the staff from the other business is the person in control of the working environment. It is, therefore, appropriate that he or she should bear the responsibility for ensuring that the workplace is safe. Accordingly, this definition seeks to ensure that the person with actual control is responsible regardless of whether he or she is the true employer of the worker.

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