Willie O'Dea (Limerick City, Fianna Fail)

I thank the Minister for the change he has introduced to this section of the Bill and the legislation now is much better than was the case on its initial introduction to the House. While technically, one can state that one cannot retrospectively give people rest breaks they did not receive at the time or give access to collective facilities, if one wished to be completely consistent one could of course put in place a system to compensate them for not getting such breaks or access. Nevertheless, I welcome the change made by the Minister. During the Second and Committee Stage debates, I made the point that the retrospection in this section regarding pay would be very harsh on certain undertakings. Almost six months have elapsed since the commencement date of 5 December 2011 and the longer this goes on, the greater the burden will be. I also pointed out to the Minister the possible constitutional implications and the danger, were someone to mount a constitutional challenge. However, I do not propose to oppose this amendment because it represents a considerable improvement on what went before.

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