Mattie McGrath (Tipperary South, Fianna Fail)

While I know where the Bill's spirit comes from, I have a number of fundamental issues with it. Not only is it being introduced at the worst possible time, it contradicts everything that we as a Government should be doing for the honest, decent and hard-working business people in this time of economic crisis.

I will attempt to outline just a few of my issues with the Bill and begin with the most obvious, namely, the setting up of a board called the National Employment Rights Authority, NERA, on a statutory basis. At a time when we are attempting to reduce the number of quangos, the Bill will introduce a new one. When we should be reducing the number of directors, we will put a new one in place.

In its short existence since its establishment on a non-statutory basis, NERA has earned itself a reputation for using strong, bully boy tactics, barging in on hard-working business people late in the evening and during their busiest periods, often as late as 10 p.m., and demanding to see their books in the middle of busy functions when their secretarial staff might not be available. Often, the owner-manager is the secretary. We need to support our small indigenous firms, not allow them to be treated like criminals by officials who do not know what it is like to run a small business while trying to make ends meet. I know what it is like to run a small business and to work through all of the extra worries and pressures that come with it. Many of the businesses in question are run by families.

The Bill will add more worries to those already struggling businesses and put an end to small businesses, entrepreneurs and any hope of job creation. It will create 23 new criminal offences with a maximum fine not exceeding €250,000 or imprisonment for a term of up to three years. Why would a business owner or manager in his or her right mind want to become subject to 23 new criminal offences? As Deputies have commented, most business people and employers are honest and hard-working and abide by current legislation. While we will always have a minority of rogue employers who exploit workers, we are using a sledgehammer to crack a nut.

As a Government, we should be focusing more on encouraging business owners and helping them with their struggles without punishing them and putting them under unnecessary extra burdens. We need our business people to focus not only on surviving, but on becoming more competitive instead of worrying about paying their employees untenable wages on a Sunday to satisfy an employment regulation order. Regarding the order, I compliment the Minister of State on his efforts in negotiating with many people and on his work in trying to level the playing field between Dublin and the rest of the country.

We all acknowledge employees' rights and the need for legislation in this area, but that legislation is already in place under the provisions of a number of different Acts and has served the State and employees well by being strong during times of need. Under the legislation, officials are empowered to visit businesses and many people who were doing wrong or exploiting others rightly ended up in court. There must be a balance between employee and employer rights, but the Bill is out of balance. We should encourage employers and employees to work together to survive these rough times, not drive a wedge between them, which I believe the Bill will do.

I appeal to the Minister of State to refrain from introducing the Bill. We are putting ourselves more and more at risk of over-regulating and scaring away any foreign industries that may want to consider Ireland as a place in which to invest or any indigenous entrepreneurs who want to go into business. The Bill, which is aimed at protecting employees, will do the complete opposite. It will put them out of work because businesses will not be able to afford the new costs and will not want to risk taking on new employees. Too often, we only realise that we have got something wrong when it is too late. It is not yet too late to re-examine what we are doing.

NERA has existed on an interim basis since 2007 and we can already see the damage and trauma that it is causing. We have witnessed many hotels and other catering outlets cease Sunday trading as a result of their strict enforcement of the hotel employment regulation orders. It is not too late to put an end to this, but it will be much more difficult to stop NERA after it has been put on a statutory basis.

The Bill has got it wrong and it is not the time to focus on these matters. I call on the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment to park it and to stop wasting our time focusing on legislating small businesses out of business. Instead, we should focus on supporting those businesses and getting ourselves out of our current situation.

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