Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I roundly reject the suggestion that we are pretending the problem does not exist. It was our Government - the former Minister of State, now Senator Ged Nash, and I - who commissioned the work by the University of Limerick on zero-hour contracts. It was on the back of that work that we held consultations with the trade union movement and employers to ensure we can bring forward legislation. The heads of that Bill have already been announced and we are moving into the proper legislative phase. As a result of the recovery in the economy, we have seen a very considerable reduction in involuntary part-time working, which was a very serious problem but is thankfully reducing. We are seeing progress in this. We are seeing fewer self-employed contracts being put in place. We want to make sure we protect precarious workers and we will bring forward legislation in this area. We also will bring forward protections for people who are in self-employed situations. Many people entered into self-employment in the course of the recession but not out of choice. We will introduce new protections for such people, including protection of an invalidity pension, access to treatment benefit and access to paternity leave. It is clear the Government is keen to extend further protections both to those who are in precarious work under employers and to those who find themselves in self-employed positions. We want to make sure that hard work is rewarded and that people are protected. We want to see improvement in living standards. I recognise, like others, that the gig economy and those changes that are taking place in our economic framework call for better protections both from a social insurance perspective and in respect of employment law. I was part of a Government that brought in significant improvements to protect temporary agency workers, to improve the minimum wage and to protect people in situations where the courts had struck down the registered employment agreements. We have refurbished employment law in order that workers can be protected. I recognise this is an area on which the Government must move. It was our Government - I acknowledge Senator Ged Nash's role in this - that took the initiative to put us in a position to implement legislation now.

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