Jack Chambers (Dublin West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The Minister of State has published the recommendations of the report that he set in motion. It is accepted that he wants to restructure the conciliation and arbitration scheme. The problem is the implementation. Why is it taking so long? We are in the final weeks of 2019. The recommendations were issued in October 2018. It seems that it would be very simple for the Minister of State to act on the recommendations in his role as Minister of State with responsibility for defence, but we have not had any action on that front. This is crucially important. I understand that the reform of the scheme and the recommendations in the report are being undermined by the Departments of Defence and Public Expenditure and Reform. Why is the Minister of State not approaching someone with a view to appointing him or her as an independent chair? Such an appointment would allow us to move on in the spirit of reform that was mentioned in the Barry report. The Minister of State has not explained whether he has approached anyone or why he will not proceed with this appointment. This is a crucial issue for the representative associations. The Minister of State has not provided clarity on what the "small issues" he mentioned are. How long will it take to overcome them? When will this happen?

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