Martin Heydon (Kildare South, Fine Gael)

I thank the Minister for his response. I feel extremely passionately about this issue. I have been pursuing it for a number of months. I wrote to the unions but the responses I received were quite alarming. When David Begg of ICTU responded to me, he said he had been told by representatives of the TUC in the UK that this measure has had no employment implications there. It should be mentioned that there have been no employment implications there to date because the UK is still within its derogation period. This will come to a head when the 12-week period, which began on 1 October, has expired. The president of SIPTU, Jack O'Connor, said in response to my correspondence that agency contracts facilitate exploitation and misery. I do not know what world Jack O'Connor is living in. I think he is living in a different country from me.

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