Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)

I acknowledge the bona fides of the Labour Party in presenting this Bill. It is a genuine effort to address genuine hardship for some individuals such as self-employed members of Equity, the NUJ and others. Similarly, I acknowledge the efforts the Labour Party is seeking to provide a means through which professional groups such as dentists, pharmacists and general practitioners can negotiate with Government for public services. However, despite this, neither I nor Fine Gael can support the Bill on a number of grounds, both to do with the ultimate policy implications of the Bill as drafted and legal flaws within it.

The explanatory memorandum suggests that section 2 has been brought in to facilitate Equity. However, the Bill does not refer to Equity and rather uses a broad-brush measure, section 2(1)(a), which effectively proposes to legalise across the board horizontal price fixing by trade associations at the expense of business groups and social partners. If this provision were enacted, it would be possible, for example, for architects to club together and demand a fixed price for services provided to particular contractors. Bricklayers could form a union and demand negotiations with the Construction Industry Federation for particular rights, such as double pay on Sundays. Casual farm workers could form a union in, say, the midlands and insist on negotiations with the IFA and farmers to give them particular employee rights while continuing to enjoy the benefits of being self employed.

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