Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

In respect of the UL group, will there be public consultation or will it focus primarily on research and data? Will the group have the chance to speak to workers? Zero-hours contracts are not completely bad if there are some companies that need them, but some companies are abusing them and treating workers like the navvies in England - wait on a corner and see whether a man comes along and picks you up. We cannot allow that to happen. We must have some respect and dignity for workers. It is important that whatever solution we come up with does not throw everything out. It is also important that it is pursued at European level because there is no sense in us having one set of protections while there are completely different rules in another part of the jurisdiction that are used as a competitive advantage and workers' conditions are used by companies to gain competitive advantage in what is an increasingly cruel global market.

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