Willie Penrose (Longford-Westmeath, Labour)

It is not necessary to establish a large quango.

We should not pass legislation and lay it off to someone else. When Deputies ask a question about the National Roads Authority, not to speak of the Health Service Executive, we cannot obtain answers. I discovered recently that all medical card applications made by people aged over 70 years will be processed in Finglas. Deputies will be shocked to learn that virtually no medical cards for people aged 70 years and over are being processed. This is being done under our noses but I have a way of ferreting out information. I may not seek it but it comes to me. This type of practice is taking place but no one will answer a question about it.

The reply I received to a question to the Minister for Health and Children the other day reminded me of Pudsy Ryan. It repeated the information I provided in the question. This practice is a denial of democracy. When I am alerted to a fact, I am entitled to obtain information on it. I do not want to deal with an advisory board or other body. The Oireachtas enacts primary legislation. Irrespective of our views, Deputies Higgins, Barrett, Varadkar and I are democratically elected and our role is to seek to amend the legislation. If our amendments our defeated on Committee Stage by a majority vote, that is democracy. The Minister will be held accountable for the actions of NERA. I do not want responsibility to devolved to another body from which I will be unable to obtain information.

Under section 27, named official agencies may share certain information. The list of such agencies, as set out in section 27(4), should be amended to include the Equality Authority, Labour Court and Data Protection Commissioner. The Labour Party is concerned that this section may give rise to some unintended consequences. In particular, my party is concerned about the sharing of information on trade union membership, even among official agencies. For example, one such agency, the Competition Authority interfered inappropriately, as Deputy Varadkar noted, in workers' freedoms of association and the rights of trade unions to organise their own affairs. Deputy Michael D. Higgins proposed amending legislation to change the current statutory position in this regard but his worthwhile Bill was shot down by the Government. The Competition Authority believes itself to be omnipotent and wishes to be the surveyors of all things. It has also made some interesting proposals to the Joint Committee on Enterprise, Trade and Employment which I chair. It has, however, interfered in the right of the Irish Pharmaceutical Union, Equity, which represents actors, and the musicians union to organise their own affairs.

An amendment will be required to protect against inappropriate disclosure of trade union membership. This may be provided in section 30 by developing a protocol under the co-operation agreements and inserting amendments to ensure that individual trade union membership is defined as confidential information under the legislation and its disclosure to official agencies prohibited. Such a protocol would require careful drafting to ensure it does not preclude the consideration of wages records which involve a deduction for trade union membership subscriptions, nor should it prohibit an investigation of whether such deductions had been paid to the union in question. Such a provision will be important.

Section 32, which relates to the display of notices, is important. Under section 47, NERA inspectors will enforce regulations and recover moneys to employees by serving compliance orders on employers. NERA already serves notice on employers that they must pay workers moneys owed or they will be taken to court. Effectively, employers must only pay what they owe and are not subject to added deterrents.

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