Colm Keaveney (Galway East, Labour)

I agree with the sentiments in the proposal before the House but for many people, there are two ways to look at the recent High Court ruling on JLCs and EROs. We can look at it as a complete disaster or as an opportunity. In my view, we must look at it as an opportunity in the interests of those people in the economy who seek the protection of the JLC system.

I welcome the debate today in that there is broad agreement in the House and, most important, what is emerging from this is that we need to have a speedy resolution to the problem before us. Unfortunately, there is no straightforward, quick-fix solution. Given the complexities of the issues set out in the High Court ruling on the joint labour committee agreements, we cannot under estimate the job of work that rests with the Minister in this regard. It is no exaggeration that over the course of the summer, we have had a mountain to climb. I assure those people who are concerned that we are climbing that mountain for them.

I note with great humour Deputy Willie O'Dea's comments and selective cutting and pasting of a previous speech I made. I would like to clarify and apologise for remarks I made to the House that day in that I described Deputy O'Dea as a great political operator and a great political mind. I failed to foresee the consequences of putting that on the record.

It was Deputy O'Dea's party which sacrificed low paid workers to the IMF. He sacrificed JLCs and ensured that in the memorandum of understanding, the principles set out in the JLC system would be sacrificed to the European partners. However, there is no point getting stuck into Deputy O'Dea as he is a man of little relevance to me today and I was not elected to speak about him but to try to represent those people who cannot protect themselves.

The High Court ruling provides us with a much needed opportunity to reform, and reform must take place. It must be our goal to limit any unfair treatment by any opportunistic employer who will use the time between the High Court decision and the juncture at which we are at today. I challenge Deputy O'Dea to put before the House the anecdotal evidence, to which he referred, in regard to abuses which people have been raising in his constituency office day in, day out.

We have an opportunity to comprehensively overhaul an archaic and a constitutionally broken system. With a correct approach, we can set down a new modernised wage setting mechanism in a more constitutional manner. In the previous debate I stated that this will be an opportunity to restore full decency and fairness to the system for workers and employers alike and to introduce mechanisms which realistically reflect the challenges of a modern contemporary economy. We have had much dialogue on this issue and a good debate. There is broad agreement on the need for reform.

Despite the difficulties we face and the legal complexities surrounding the issues, the road ahead is not insurmountable and I welcome the fact that we will have comprehensive legislation in this term to address the issues set out in the Feeney judgment.

I do not accept that this Government has been dragging its feet in regard to our endeavours to protect low paid workers in the economy. However, workers must not be left exposed to the whims of opportunistic employers because the human cost for any unnecessary delay is simply too high and this is not the time to play games with the lives of people who cannot protect themselves as a consequence of the economic situation.

In the previous debate, I stated that any new system developed over the course of the summer must ensure unreservedly that workers in JLC sectors end up earning no less than their current wages and that a new system should allow for equal if not greater levels of pay for workers who are the real backbone of this economy. I advise Deputy O'Dea and some of the contributors from Sinn Féin that it is not the Minister's job to set the rates of pay in the JLC system. It will be the job of the social partners, those people who can sit down, thrash out and negotiate the rate of pay. As a practitioner in the industry, I know that is who sets the rate of pay, not the Minister-----

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