Willie O'Dea (Limerick City, Fianna Fail)

As the Minister has said, the JLC system was put in place to cover situations where collective bargaining was not possible for one reason or another, for example, in areas where there was no union representation. How does the Minister envisage a system will work if JLCs are replaced with this principle of collective bargaining? Who will be doing the bargaining on behalf of the workers? How will that be determined and who will decide whether the workers are properly represented and whether this is proper collective bargaining?

I note a commitment in the programme for Government to reform the current law on employees' right to engage in collective bargaining which is at present contained in the Industrial Relations (Amendment) Act 2001, to ensure compliance by the State with recent judgments of the European Court of Human Rights. Will the Minister give an indication what this means? What is his understanding of the conclusions reached by the European Court of Human Rights on the meaning of the term "collective bargaining"?

See this speech in context