Willie O'Dea (Limerick City, Fianna Fail)

The Minister is fundamentally inaccurate. He accuses speakers on this side of the House of trying to outlaw the arrangement of permanent agency workers. They are not. Nobody is objecting to the arrangement whereby a person can be a permanent agency worker. What people on this side of the House who tabled amendments are objecting to is the notion that if somebody falls into this category, they are automatically excluded from the protection in the legislation. This is unreasonable.

I do not accept the so-called protections written in by the Minister will have any effect or impact whatsoever in practice. It will be possible to employ somebody on low pay because all the agency has to pay them is a minimum of 50% of what the person received on the previous assignment. People will be in the system to get employment because they need a job. If they receive a letter from an employment agency, they will tacitly accept the conditions by not stating they object to them. It will not do people any good to object because they will be told this is how it is.

The Minister spoke about a permanent contract of employment. I am very unclear about what that means. It certainly does not mean somebody is obliged to be employed in 20 or 30 years time. An employer can take on somebody today and state it is intended to make the position permanent but circumstances can change. For a category of people who form only a tiny subsection of the totality of agency workers, and without any obligation being put on us by the EU directive, we are introducing a provision into this Bill which can create a loophole through which employment agencies can drive a coach and four. That is unnecessary and wrong. The Minister should reflect between now and the Seanad debate with a view to withdrawing this unnecessary provision.

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