Pat Breen (Clare, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

-----IBEC and all the main players.

On the other hand, I believe the Government's Bill, which the Minister, Deputy Regina Doherty, is committed to publishing before Christmas, is a much more comprehensive response to the issue of casualisation of work and the strengthening of regulation of precarious work. The Bill will address a number of issues which have been identified as being areas where current employment rights legislation can only be strengthened, without imposing unnecessarily onerous burdens on employers and businesses. In addition to introducing banded hours provisions for employees whose contract of employment does not reflect the reality of the hours they work on a consistent basis, the Bill will ensure that employees are much better informed about the hours they can expect to work on a daily and weekly basis. The Bill will also create a new offence where employers fail to inform their employees of their core terms of employment. Furthermore, the Bill will prohibit zero-hour contracts in most circumstances and will provide for better financial compensation for employees who may be called in to work but who do not get the promised hours of work. The Bill will provide for strengthened anti-penalisation provisions to better protect employees who try to invoke a right under the legislation. Unlike the Sinn Féin Bill - I want to state in the House that I have never provoked Sinn Féin - the Government Bill will contain measures specifically targeted at low paid, vulnerable workers.

I have listened with great attentiveness to the debate and I understand the genuine interest on all sides of the House in putting in place improved legislative measures to help those who may be in precarious or insecure employment arrangements. We all know these people. We deal with them in our constituency clinics. I can assure Members that the Minister, Deputy Regina Doherty, and myself look forward to working in a positive manner with Members on all sides and in both Houses in progressing that legislation through the Houses of the Oireachtas.

We are not kicking matters down the road, as some speakers suggested. We want to bring forward good legislation in the interests of all parties concerned.

I acknowledge again the good work carried out by the joint committee in conducting a thorough scrutiny of the Banded Hours Contract Bill. I believe the scrutiny report is balanced. It is a fair assessment of the Bill and reflects on all who have contributed to the process including stakeholders who attended hearings of the committee, individual members and the Chair, Deputy Butler, who has been in the Chamber throughout the debate this evening, as well as the clerk to the committee and the staff of the committee secretariat. I thank them all for their work.

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