Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)

I compliment Deputy Tóibín and his colleagues on bringing forward this Bill. I particularly compliment Deputy Crowe on his contribution, which I watched earlier on the monitor in my office.

The area to which the Bill relates is extraordinarily complex and I bear the scars of having served for 22 months as the Minister of State with responsibility for it. A great deal of progress was achieved during that time. Many Members referred to the reforms that are under way in the employment rights institutions at present and I compliment the Minister on his appointment of Ger Deering as the lead person in respect of this matter. Mr. Deering, who is head of the National Employment Rights Authority, NERA, will bring a great deal of innovation to this area. At the end of the process which Mr. Deering is co-ordinating and which began with the BearingPoint report, many of the difficulties to which Deputies on both sides of the House referred in respect of waiting times, dispute shopping and access points will be resolved.

I am struck by the fact the Dáil is in its summer session and that it was at the end of the corresponding session last year that the Minister, Deputy Bruton, brought forward his original proposals in respect of the Labour Relations Commission, LRC, JLC agreements, etc. At that time, the Labour backbenchers engaged in a May Day revolution. It is almost one year on but matters have not moved on. I accept that what is envisaged in the Bill would be quite slow in nature and I would have supported many of the original proposals brought forward by the Minister. In that context, there is a need to provide protection to the workers who have been affected in the meantime by the closures in Vita Cortex, Lagan Brick, Irish Cement, TalkTalk and La Senza.

It is important to state the companies to which I refer are in a minority. The majority of employers work within the law. In fact, the laws in this area, when properly implemented, offer extremely strong protections. At present, the majority of self-employed persons are probably not taking wages from their own businesses in an attempt to keep those businesses afloat and to retain people in employment. In discussing the role of dishonour that is headed by Vita Cortex, we must remember that the majority of employers are decent people who do their best for those who work with them. On the day that is in it, the House should send its best wishes to the workers at Vita Cortex and Lagan Brick who are still occupying their employers' premises as they seek to obtain their basic rights. Deputy Crowe referred to those individuals who, during the past year, have been present in the Visitors Gallery for various debates on workers' rights and other specific issues. We have not yet put in place the protections to avoid that small number of employers sullying the great cause of the majority of employers.

I was particularly struck by the TalkTalk closure. I know it was a minority case; the Minister referred to the fact that the issue of collective redundancy and one month's notice is rare. TalkTalk's business model completely depended on its employees and their skills. I visited TalkTalk several years ago when it received an excellence through people award, such was the quality of its employees' skills. Management in this UK company, however, turned its back at an hour's notice on those hundreds of employees in Waterford. The strength and quality of those workers is evident in the fact that some of them have established their own call centre businesses employing many people after they were made redundant.

When we have a gap in our employee protection legislation that allows such events as the TalkTalk closure occur while Ministers and officers of the State can only look on in wonder and disgust, Parliament has a duty to act. I know the difficulties around re-engineering the employment rights bodies and JLCs are significant with many stakeholders to be brought on board which the Minister is trying to do. We have identified a specific gap in the legislation which has been disgracefully exploited by foreign multinationals. If this were a gap in criminal law, we would act with emergency legislation very quickly. As it is employment law, the same urgency is not there even though the consequences for other workers when losing their jobs are as great.

The Bill is technically flawed with many difficulties. However, that is what Committee Stage is about – to debate every aspect of a Bill. If the Government had the courage to carry it on to Committee Stage and put forward amendments to deal with the technical flaws, then instead of sending good wishes to the Vita Cortex and Lagan Brick workers we could actually do something for them and avoid it happening again.

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