Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I appreciate the urgency of this. My Department received recently the first draft of the Bill from the Office of the Parliamentary Counsel and, subject to Government approval, I envisage the publication of the Bill at an early date once the drafting process is complete. The joint committee has confirmed it does not wish to engage in pre-legislative scrutiny of the draft legislation. As such, the Bill, once published, can come straight to the House in keeping with the urgency to which the Deputy refers. The Government's legislation will ensure employees are better informed about the nature of their employment arrangements and, in particular, their core terms at an early stage of their employment. Employees will not have to wait to get those details. It will strengthen the provisions around minimum payments to low-paid, vulnerable workers who may be called in to work for a period but not provided with that work. That is an issue which has been raised. It will also deal with quite a number of other things.

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