Paudie Coffey (Waterford, Fine Gael)

I welcome the opportunity to contribute to the important debate which concerns industrial relations, employment law and workers' rights. The Bill is before the House because the joint labour committee structures, which were in place since 1946 and many felt were extremely outdated given our current economic circumstances, were urgently in need of reform. That situation was endorsed by the court case last year which found that the fundamental structures of JLCs and employment regulation orders, ERAs, that emanate from them, were fundamentally unsound and in urgent need of reform. At that time, much concern was expressed, quite rightly, by unions and employers in the business sector. The Bill before us will address this important area.

When introducing new legislation, it is important that, as far as practicable, it should be fair, balanced and do the job it is intended to do. This Bill is to reform employment regulation orders and registered employment agreements made by the joint labour committees. It will protect workers' interests. The JLCs can still set adult rates of pay, but they must now take into account factors such as competitiveness and unemployment which is currently in crisis. If we do not have competitiveness in our economy we will not be creating employment. We can see the challenges that lie before us with rising unemployment levels.

I come from Waterford in the south east where unemployment levels are way above the national average. It is of great concern to me as a Deputy from that constituency, as with Deputies on both sides of the House, that legislation we introduce here should not put employment creation prospects at risk in any way.

Sunday premium rates were previously set by the JLCs, but this will no longer be the case. A code of practice will be introduced and consultation will occur between employer and employee representative bodies. That is both correct and important. Any new premium rates to be set must reflect the flexibility now required in a modern economy. I attended a good news story this week in Waterford where a company called Eishtec will create over 280 new jobs in the coming six months. Eishtec has won international contracts against stiff competition. It is a service call centre which feels it can compete with international companies and win more contracts here in Ireland. To do so, however, it needs to be competitive and flexible. Much of Eishtec's work will be at off-peak times, at weekends and after hours. The company has a flexible workforce that is ready and willing to do such work and the more we see of that the better. We are beginning to realise that in the modern global economy we must adopt a flexible approach to work. That will allow us to become much more competitive, thus winning more international contracts.

Social partnership contributed many positive things to this economy, but there were negative aspects also because many deals were done behind closed doors. They were not done openly or in this House and we suffered for that in many ways through a loss of competitiveness. In addition we lost our ability to be flexible and win contracts.

I hope that in future we will see a real engagement by employers, unions and the Government to ensure we protect and sustain existing jobs as well as pitching for new ones. Today I saw an announcement that exports are up massively on last year's figures. They are at the highest rate ever, which must be welcomed. Last summer, the Government got much criticism when the jobs initiative was introduced to focus on the tourism and hospitality sectors. We saw the direct impact of that focus, however, by increasing jobs in those areas as well as having higher visitor numbers. That creates a whole new revenue stream of income for this country, which must be further encouraged.

Some areas in the construction sector have been affected by JLCs in the past, such as electricians' rates. Many contracts have been lost to companies outside this jurisdiction. For example, JLCs restricted companies that quoted for work, including fitting out shops at weekends. As a result we lost such contracts to Northern Ireland and British companies because we were not competitive in those areas. I certainly hope we will now become competitive as a result of this legislation. In that way, Irish companies will compete for contracts and win them, thus creating jobs here.

I commend the Minister, Deputy Richard Bruton, and the Minister of State, Deputy John Perry, for the many initiatives they have introduced to assist small businesses. However, banks in this country are still not giving credit to small businesses. Last week in Waterford, a small business employing ten people applied for a term loan from a bank. They were given the term loan after much negotiation and hardship, but the bank withdrew the overdraft to that company. That limited the access to credit the company so badly needs. Banks cannot continue to give with one hand and take away with the other.

There are over 200,000 small businesses which employ almost 700,000 people. They are the life-blood of this economy and must be supported in every possible way.

See this speech in context