Gerald Nash (Louth, Labour) | Oireachtas source

It is not beyond the bounds of normal industrial relations practice for a Minister or any other Member to call on a company to respect and honour an agreement. We asked the British Government this week to respect and honour an agreement they made with Ireland and the EU and I expect that this House would unite in requesting Premier Periclase to honour an agreement it made with its workers in 1998.

I am glad, in many respects, that the Minister of State mentioned the Industrial Relations (Amendment) Act, 2015, which I authored and which introduces some important protections and measures to promote collective bargaining in the context of what is a difficult constitutional environment. Sadly, however, the programme for Government that was authored by Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil and the Green Party is virtually a workers' rights-free document. If employers think they can hollow out the pay and terms and conditions and bust trade union activity in factories and workplaces throughout this country, and that is a route to economic recovery, they are sadly mistaken.

Does the Minister of State feel that it is time to finally and ultimately grasp that collective bargaining mettle in this country and that, whether the initiative will come from the EU or from Ireland, we finally address this long-running sore in our economy and society to provide people with full trade union and collective bargaining rights, even if that means addressing it through a constitutional amendment?

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