Seán Kyne (Galway West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State. I know he has a considerable interest in this area and he has certainly put a lot of work into the Bill, for which I commend him.

The Bill will reinstate the system of registering collective agreements and will provide for a new system of registering employment agreements in certain sectors. It also contains measures to put in place collective bargaining rights. As a member of the Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, and as a Deputy for Galway West and Mayo South, I have engaged with businesses, particularly small to medium sized enterprises but also with larger companies, employers and workers. It is clear that a balance needs to be struck on the issue of registered agreements.

Our recovery is strengthening, employment is increasing and State revenues are up, but the recovery is fragile and we cannot put in place inflexible arrangements that would endanger job retention and job creation. However, it is also clear from a number of high-profile cases that we need to ensure this legislation helps contribute towards a sense of security and certainty for workers - certainty in pay, in working hours and in working conditions.

Making work pay is a key policy of Fine Gael and gainful employment in sustainable jobs is vital. Work should always pay more than welfare. I view this legislation in that light as part of the number of measures underway to encourage job creation that is sustainable and through which a person can support himself or herself and his or her family. Other measures include the establishment of the Low Pay Commission, the reform of the State's workplace relations organisations and the introduction of the back to work family dividend in the last budget, which was particularly welcome.

This Bill is another example of a reform introduced by this Government which unfortunately has been often overlooked, namely, reform of the pre-legislative stage. This is very welcome because it provides for scrutiny and a process of engagement with interested parties, and it has really opened up the legislative process.

Last autumn, at the Oireachtas committee, we engaged with stakeholders on this issue, specifically the general scheme of the Bill. I have been encouraged by the Government's motivation to provide clarity and harmonious industrial relations and to establish a more constitutionally robust regulatory framework. Following stakeholder hearings with a range of groups, including IBEC, ICTU, the Labour Relations Commission, the Construction Workers Alliance and others, our committee compiled a report and submitted this to Government. The Department then considered a number of the issues raised in the report.

Some sections of the Bill stand out. Section 7 concerns registered employment agreements and instructs the Labour Court to register agreements only where there is all-party agreement and where the court is satisfied that a trade union is substantially representative of workers in an organisation.

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