Mary Mitchell O'Connor (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this Bill, which is intended to establish rights for certain categories of self-employed individuals. I welcome the many people in the Public Gallery whom the Bill will affect.

The Bill proposes that a trade union can apply to the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation for an exemption from the application of section 4 of the Competition Act 2002 to collective bargaining and agreements in respect of specific classes of self-employed workers. The Bill allows me to prescribe by ministerial order, following appropriate consultation, that such classes of self-employed worker shall be exempt from section 4 of the 2002 Act which prohibits anti-competitive agreements and price fixing.

When applying for such an exemption, the trade union must provide evidence that the members in question are either false self-employed or fully dependent self-employed as defined in the Bill. In addition, the trade union must provide evidence that if the workers are exempted from section 4, there will be a minimal or no economic effect on the market, that the exemption will not lead to significant costs to the State and that the exemption will not fall foul of competition law generally.

Finally, the Bill inserts a new Schedule 4 to the Competition Act 2002 and exempts those three activities outlined in the social partnership agreement, Towards 2016, namely, actors engaged as voice-over actors, musicians engaged as session musicians and journalists engaged as freelance journalists, from section 4 of the Competition Act 2002. I note that we are joined in the Public Gallery by many voice-over actors, musicians and freelance journalists.

This amendment Bill, which has met with all-party support in the Seanad, provides for a fine balance in meeting the stated objectives underpinning the legislation, while remaining consistent with competition law generally. It has drawn from a December 2014 ruling of the Court of Justice of the European Union in the Dutch musicians case. The court made it clear that the facts of a particular case must be examined to determine whether an individual should be classified as a false self-employed person and, therefore, deemed to be an employee for competition law purposes, or as a genuinely self-employed and independent contractor. Ultimately, the court made it clear that future cases would have to be examined on their merits.

I welcome the support the Bill received as it passed through the various Stages in the Houses of the Oireachtas. I am sure that those who closely followed its passage will be delighted to see that it has reached Fifth Stage. I thank all those involved in getting the Bill to this Stage.

I particularly recognise the collaborative and open approach of the Labour Party to working with the Government to progress the Bill and meet the stated objectives underpinning it while, at the same time, remaining consistent with competition law. I thank Senators Gerald Nash and Ivana Bacik for all the work they have done on this Private Members' competition amendment Bill.

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