Gerald Nash (Louth, Labour) | Oireachtas source

This is an area we asked the UL to examine. The report states there is not extensive use of zero-hour contracts in Ireland. It is prevented by the provisions of the Working Time Act 1997, but it is important that our labour market policies, employment protection legislation and the regulatory environment keep up with evolving practices in industry. The UL identified the prevalence of what might be termed "if and when" contracts, where there is potentially no mutuality of obligation between an employer and an employee. This may very well be the case in the instance provided by Deputy Pringle. We need to be conscious of this in the proposals we make. We also need to be conscious of the role played by the Department of Social Protection through family income supplement and access to jobseeker's payments for people working in an atypical fashion with non-guaranteed hours.

See this speech in context