Billy Kelleher (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail)

On employment rights and the protection of workers, we have a very strong corpus of legislation, covering every issue from redundancy to paternity and maternity leave. The employment law compliance Bill will be published quite soon. We are as exercised as anybody else with ensuring it will be published, fully debated and enacted with a view to establishing NERA fully on a statutory basis. NERA is already established on an interim basis and can enforce the law in respect of breaches of employment rights. The Government has increased the number of inspectors and we hope to have 90 in the very near future. This is a fundamental commitment under Towards 2016 and we are honouring the commitments as best we can.

I asked NERA to investigate the matter of the seafarers, to which Deputy Penrose referred. It informed me quite recently that the boat in question is flagged in Honduras and run by a company registered in Cyprus. With all due respect, NERA can only be responsible for companies registered in Ireland.

There were two commitments regarding agency workers. We almost had a Bill ready in this regard but it must be remembered that some issues that are now being raised on agency workers are outside the scope of Towards 2016. However, we are committed to publishing the employment agencies regulation Bill and the memorandum thereto will be presented to the Cabinet in the very near future.

We are trying to live up to our commitments under Towards 2016. However, some legitimate concerns were raised by some of the social partners and we are trying to deal with them. I hope the employers, trade unions, Government and social partners will all acknowledge the challenges that exist when they commence talks. The Government is very much aware of them and in this regard it must protect competitiveness and foreign direct investment in particular. Some companies have expressed concerns in this regard. The Government will not stand over any circumstances in which agency workers are exploited and given insufficient salaries.

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