Michael Collins (Cork South West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I agree with my colleagues in the Rural Independent Group. It is a bit rich of the Labour Party to put this forward today, when it absolutely destroyed women's pensions. It comes before me in my constituency every week because of the Labour Party's errors and what it did to persecute the women of this country. It has forgotten that quickly but we have not forgotten it because we have to face it daily and the women who worked hard have to face it, because of disgraceful decisions made by the Labour Party.

Every employer I know in west Cork wants to do the best by their employees. Only a foolish Deputy would come in and say that employers in the constituency that he or she represents are not stretched to the limit. They are stretched to a complete limit at this time and are unable to do any more. They are doing their best, with Covid-19, to keep the people they have employed. I am worried that this Bill will add an extra burden to people at this time. I was at the annual general meeting of the south-west fishermen's co-operative over the weekend. People there said to me that the obstacles they encounter when trying to employ somebody such as a foreign national on their boat cost them thousands of euro and it takes months to get somebody on the boat to work. We should look to see how we can simplify that. It is simplified for meat factories. It is an issue for larger trawlers in west Cork. I was with them for most of the day on Saturday and talked with them about the difficulties they are experiencing. This is a significant difficulty and perhaps an amendment in this regard should be put in this Bill. For now, we should be careful where we go with this Bill. We are adding extra stress and difficulties for employers who are doing their best to stay afloat and this pushes them to their limit.

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