Anthony Lawlor (Kildare North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome this Bill, which has been in the offing for a long time. It is probably a pity that the Joint Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation did not have a chance to discuss this matter further before the legislation was brought to the House. I accept that it came before us in 2012. Perhaps we could have discussed the heads of the Bill more recently. I have always welcomed the amalgamations that have taken place. All the way along, our objective has been to reduce the number of bodies out there. In the 2011 election, we gave a commitment to try to make some sort of savings. I am delighted to say that the Minister, Deputy Bruton, has fulfilled that commitment on a number of occasions by providing for the amalgamation of a number of boards. This is another example of that.

It has often been said during debates on job creation in this House that people find it difficult to get funding for such purposes. There is no one portal that they can look at and examine; instead, there are various sources of funding. In this legislation, the Minister has decided to provide for a clear-cut process that will apply when there are difficulties with employment and employers. This clear-cut road will involve the new Workplace Relations Commission and the Labour Court. There is a clear outline of what will happen going forward. Before today, people did not know what route they should take if there were employment issues for workers. I hope this legislation will improve the efficiency of the resolution process. This is important for workers who have difficulties with employers. We are all talking about workers, but we should bear in mind that the employers who employ these people need to be able to resolve their issues with employees in a clear-cut manner.

I would like to speak about an issue that has arisen on a number of occasions. I always refer back to the attitude in Germany. The National Employment Rights Authority is probably one of the worst examples of this. I understand that section 32 of the Bill identifies the bodies that will be covered by the inspectorate. It is important for a positive attitude to be taken when random inspections are taking place. Inspectors should not try to find faults in employment situations where there might not be any faults at all. Instead, they should praise the employers for the environments they have created. When most random inspections take place, in the health sector or in the workplace relations arena, the inspectors go in to try to find something wrong. More often than not, there is nothing wrong at all. In certain circumstances, inspectors have a negative attitude when they go into employers' premises. They should have a positive attitude. If there is something wrong, they should work through it rather than going through the Workplace Relations Commission process. It would be more beneficial if such common sense were shown. We should encourage all sides, as long as the employer is in favour of it, to sort out the issue without having to go through the resolution process. The inspectorate should take a much more positive attitude when it is doing inspections. Rather than trying to find fault, it should encourage positive workplace relationships.

How soon after the passing of this legislation does the Minister expect that the boards will be dissolved? As he knows, one of the purposes of this legislation is to make approximately €2 million in savings on an annual basis. How soon will the boards be dissolved? What sort of employment savings are expected as a result of this Bill? The Minister has indicated that he expects more inspectors and other staff to be employed in certain sections. Can he give us an indication of what the employment situation will be for most of the workers who are currently employed by these bodies? Will the board appointees be nominated by the relevant bodies? Given that we are removing a number of boards as things stand, will the board have a sufficiently broad spectrum to cater for the new role of the Workplace Relations Commission? Will its new role involve oversight? I know the Government sets policy, but will the board have a role with regard to the direction the workplace relations commission might take in the future?

Before I conclude, I would like to comment on the deferred pensioner issue, which was raised by Deputy Clare Daly. I have spoken about it here on a number of occasions. I have been told that trustees are supposed to be responsible for all members of pension funds. However, the deferred pensioners do not have the right to vote or to act as trustees. Maybe we could look at that in the context of this Bill. The workforce is very flexible at the moment - this is something we have encouraged - but flexibility can lead to problems.

4 o’clock

One problem is that people who have pensions associated with an employment have no say in their pension funds when they switch employment. I have also raised this matter with the Tánaiste. Perhaps we could examine the possibility of allowing deferred pensioners some rights, for example, voting or appointing trustees to pension funds.

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