Tom Fleming (Kerry South, Independent)

I welcome this Bill before the House and commend Deputy Tóibín for this urgently needed initiative. In numerous sudden company closures in the past, employees in many cases were badly treated by employers with no prior notice when they were legally entitled to four weeks' notice and several more infringements of employee protection regulations. There is an onus on the Government to dramatically rework the current legislation, putting a greater onus on the employer in terms of communication and co-operation with employees regarding company closure and redundancy. The consultation periods proposed in the Bill are welcome.

Problems with existing employee protection legislation have been blatantly demonstrated over the past several years. Many of these problems are due to the fact that union membership has been decimated in the private sector with only one in four workers now unionised. I have called on the Government to rescind the decision in the second last budget to abolish the measure whereby union subscriptions were tax deductible. I am calling again for the Government to make this measure a priority. The measure's re-introduction would incentivise vulnerable workers to have union membership and, thereby, be properly and professionally represented. In contrast to this, the public sector has almost 100% union representation.

The Government should at least have the general thrust of this Bill referred to an all-party jobs committee to deliberate on it and arrive at improved legislation to protect vulnerable workers in the private sector. The average waiting period for claims to the employment appeals tribunal is up to 80 weeks. I brought this to the attention of the Minister, Deputy Bruton, in a previous debate a year ago and he promised these matters would be expedited. However, the backlog remains. The Minister needs to act immediately in dealing with the backlog. I would suggest he introduce a fast-track system whereby mediation could be involved.

See this speech in context