Willie Penrose (Longford-Westmeath, Labour)

I assure the Minister of State the Labour Party is supportive. Let us be clear about that. Why was the Bill published? Why did not the Minister of State await the outcome of the social partnership talks? I appreciate he was under pressure from us all. Every morning the Taoiseach and former Taoiseach got up and replied to questions. Why did the Minister of State rush to the headland when the Bill was nowhere near the finite product? What was the reason for the rush? Given that the Minister of State was aware the social partners disagreed fundamentally with a significant and core element of the Bill, as drafted, at Part 2, why did he present it? Deputy Varadkar said we had better subject this Bill to bureaucratic evaluation as well because it contains many bureaucratic elements. While I support the thrust of the Bill, we need to "red tape" index it. What significant changes will affect Part 2 of the Bill, following the discussions that took place under the social partnership agreement, which was recently concluded successfully?

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