Pat Breen (Clare, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

On 2 May, the Government approved draft legislative proposals as a response to the programme for Government commitment to address the problems caused by the increased casualisation of work and to strengthen the regulation of precarious work. The draft legislation was referred to the Office of the Attorney General on 4 May for priority drafting.

The proposals aim to address a number of key issues which have been identified as being areas where current employment rights legislation can be strengthened. They will benefit employees, particularly low-paid and more vulnerable employees, without imposing unnecessarily onerous burdens on employers and businesses. 

The proposals are the result of extensive consultations. These include a public consultation by my Department following the University of Limerick, UL, study on zero-hour and low-hour contracts, as well as a detailed dialogue process with ICTU and IBEC over several months.

I am referring the draft legislation to the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation for it to consider and determine if it wishes to engage in pre-legislative scrutiny of it.  The Deputy is a member of the committee. As the Bill has been referred for priority drafting, I envisage that it will be published at an early date once the drafting process is finished.

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