John Brady (Wicklow, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The Minister and I are on two different wavelengths. We are talking about compensating the State, not an individual. The Minister referred to taking away whatever compensation an individual receives, but that is not what we propose. Many businesses that are found to have breached the law and unfairly dismissed an individual are getting away with not contributing to the social welfare system. We want to end that and for individuals to receive their full awards.

I want to set the record straight. I referred to a delay of 63 months, but it is actually 63 weeks. There are significant delays. People are forced into the welfare system, and there is a significant burden on the State.

The Minister said we do not know how much of a saving would result from the amendment. In 2011 a response to a question stated this potentially involves a much higher amount of money, that currently the Employment Appeals Tribunal is not obliged to report to the Revenue any tax anomalies, avoidance, underpayment, etc. that it comes across within the hearings and that some chairs pick up the phone on occasion but others do not as there is no legal requirement for them to do so.

I urge the Minister to re-examine this area. It is probably quite complex and requires more work. I would be prepared to withdraw the amendment if the Minister could give us assurances that he will bring it back to the committee early next year for further analysis. I firmly believe that there is a substantial saving to the State to be made

It is not about penalising individuals who have received awards for being dismissed unfairly. This could act as a deterrent. There is significant exploitation of workers and people are being unfairly dismissed to try to bring in cheaper alternatives. This amendment could further penalise employers who try to go down the route of unfairly dismissing people and would place additional penalties on employers. The burden would be placed on the employer rather than the person who has been unfairly dismissed in the first place.

See this speech in context