Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I am delighted to have the opportunity to discuss this really important legislation. Deputy Kelly said that when it is signed by the President, it will become the first Opposition Bill to become law and to have passed through both Houses of the Oireachtas. It has taken a full year. It is to become law despite the fact that 137 Private Members' Bills have been introduced, many of which have passed Second Stage and many of which have proceeded to Report Stage. This, however, will be the first to be enacted. We need to ensure that, in the spirit of having decent legislation come from all sides of this House, we facilitate that.

I must sound a note of caution. I read the report today that has come to the reform committee. It seeks to restrict the capacity to introduce Private Members' legislation. That would not be good.

Genuinely, this Bill is a cause of celebration. It deals with the first issue on which we really had collective support to do something that was really important in this Dáil. For that reason, I found Deputy Lawless's partisan comments unnecessary and jarring. His party had been so supportive of this all along. Lest it go unrecorded, I must state the Labour Party's record on labour law in the previous Government was exemplary. Ireland is the only country to have introduced collective bargaining legislation in the past five years. In its 15 years in government, Fianna Fáil refused to do so. No other country in the world introduced new collective bargaining rights. We restored the registered employment agreements that were struck down by the Supreme Court and we introduced a new concept, sectoral employment orders, which have been of benefit to the Clerys workers and others, and which, I hope, will be of benefit to Dublin Bus workers. We can actually define the base for a category of worker for the first time. We restored the minimum wage, which Fianna Fáil cut twice.

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