Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

We discuss general law here all the time without discussing the specifics of individual cases or concrete examples.

I have given the Minister a concrete example but he does not want to refer to that. I am just giving him the example of a staff member being let go and the same owners opening up a parallel company employing a person to do exactly the same job for half the wages. Is that exploitative or not? In my view, it is extremely exploitative. If the logic of protecting the worker's rights is there in the first case, then the logic of protecting the worker's rights is there in the parallel company also.

We had the Companies Bill go through the House. Over and over again, I asked the Minister of State, Deputy Sean Sherlock, to ensure that the Companies Bill was built in such a way as to protect employees' rights but he said employees' rights can be dealt with elsewhere. Absolutely not. This House should ensure that we proof every piece of legislation when it comes to employees' rights. If the Minister agrees with me that there are potential situations for employees to be exploited in the example of a parallel company, will he commit today to creating legislation to prevent that from happening in the future?

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