Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)

With regard to the rights of agency workers, the transposition of the EU directive is the responsibility of the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation. The deadline for the transposition of the directive is 5 December 2011. The Government intends to have the legislation in place in order to have the directive implemented by that date. The Minister is in discussions with the employer organisations and the Irish Congress of Trade Unions on aspects of the directive and the way in which it will be implemented. I understand those discussions will be concluded shortly. No employer should seek to pull some stunt to try to avoid the terms of that directive. The Government intends to give effect to the directive in legislation and in the meantime no employer should try to avoid it.

The Deputy called for a debate on jobs. The Government would be happy to have such a debate. The matter can be raised with the Whips on what needs to be done to create jobs in the economy. In the course of that debate I look forward to hearing if the Deputy has any positive proposals in that regard.

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