Maurice Quinlivan (Limerick City, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I acknowledge the vast amount of work Deputy Cullinane has put into this Bill. There is a very simple agenda behind this legislation, which is to give workers more security regarding the number of hours they work and the amount they are paid as a result. To give workers this small level of assurance and security is not a big ask. In fact, it begs the question as to why the current situation has been allowed to obtain for so long. This Bill does not seek to give workers additional hours or more pay. It just aims to give them an entitlement to know the hours they will be required to work based on their usual work patterns. How unfair is it that some workers do not know how many hours they will receive the following week and so cannot budget for simple everyday expenses, plan how many hours of child care they will need or apply for loans because they do not know what their income will be? That is not right and it needs to be changed. This is why it is important that the Bill be progressed.

I am a member of the Joint Committee on Business, Enterprise and Innovation, which subjected the Bill to a great deal of scrutiny and debate over a number of months. In fact, I think it was the item that received the most attention from the committee this year and rightly so because this is a real problem that requires a strong solution. I thank the Chairman, Deputy Butler, for her co-operation, the committee secretariat for all its work, Deputies and Senators for engaging in scrutiny of the Bill; and, of course, all the representatives on both sides of the argument who helped the committee come to its conclusions. This analysis and examination of the Bill had the positive effect of highlighting how many people are affected by this problem and putting it back on to the political agenda. Our committee heard from a broad range of representatives on both sides. We heard from 44 different individuals from over 20 separate organisations over a five-month period.

After hearing all the arguments, I am in no doubt that the benefits this Bill would bring to workers will far outweigh the small inconvenience employers might face in giving workers hours that reflect the hours they work in any event. The committee made a number of recommendations regarding changes to the Bill that Deputy Cullinane has indicated he is willing to accept. Deputy Cullinane has always stated that he welcomes amendments that will improve the Bill and this report on the Scrutiny of Banded Hours Contract Bill achieved the objective of Committee Stage of our legislative process in identifying issues and proposing changes to make our proposed laws stronger and better.

The Government now intends to bring forward its own legislation on this topic. I honestly believe it is only bringing that forward because a Sinn Féin Bill was going through the Oireachtas. God forbid that a Sinn Féin Bill would be allowed pass through this House because it might highlight how much of a do-nothing, ineffective Government this Administration has been, particularly in respect of this issue. Bringing forward brand new and much weaker legislation is a waste of time because the Bill introduced by Deputy Cullinane has already proceeded through a number of the legislative Stages. The Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection's Bill will be extremely weak in comparison to that brought forward by Deputy Cullinane because the Government intends to exclude casual workers from accessing its provisions. This would affect a massive cohort of people and make the provisions of the Bill practically useless to most. Perhaps that is the Government's intention. Student workers or those one would describe as casual workers are still workers at the end of the day and should not be entitled to fewer rights or be treated worse than their counterparts. Last year, the Minister of State, Deputy Breen, said that this type of legislation would not be required because it is only an issue in a number of sectors. However, due to the attention this Bill has received, the Government is now conceding that it is a real problem. Instead of addressing the problem, the Government now intends to introduce a weak Bill that will exclude most and be nothing more than a hollow legislative provision with no substance.

The Minister needs to accept that the Oireachtas legislative process has worked in this instance. I would say it has worked quite well thus far. This Bill was introduced and was referred to the committee for scrutiny. The committee examined it intensely over a number of months, heard from witnesses on both sides of the argument, including Government Deputies, and recommended that the Bill proceed with some amendments. The Government's action in dismissing this extensive work, which included input from Deputies from Fine Gael, throws this effort back in our faces and belittles our legislative process.

As much as the Government does not want to hear it, Sinn Féin does bring forward good Bills and is open to working with all other Deputies to make laws that will make a real difference in people's lives. Of course, this does not sit well with Fine Gael's agenda of Sinn Féin-bashing, which is the only reason it wants to throw this Bill out. What the Minister is trying to do here is really pathetic. I urge her to reconsider her course of action, let this Bill proceed, give workers greater security of income and allow them to better plan their lives and futures. That is not too much to ask for.

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