Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)

Tááthas orm an deis cúpla focal a rá ar an mBille. We should reflect on where this process started. The starting point was when the previous Government instituted a review of the JLC system but what was not envisaged was that the total system would collapse. All of us agree there is need for change but change should happen in a controlled and focused way. Because of a court case taken and a ruling in the High Court that has not been appealed by the Government, the whole edifice has been knocked down. All we have been told is that if we wait long enough we will get a new edifice. The strategy being put forward by the Government is that we should wait and it will create a new edifice, but my concern is that the starting point of that edifice will not be the situation that pertained until the High Court gave its ruling, which was that there were very specific protections for workers, which might have been amended or adjusted to deal with the new issues that have arisen in our time. The Government will start from a point where there will be no defence other than the minimum wage and the basic standard law for workers and from that point that it will build.

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