Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

As everyone knows, I will talk to anybody, so in any review I have no hesitation in talking to anyone after 12 months, especially those who have been affected by any decision we make here. My officials are the same because in drafting the legislation we have engaged directly with committee members as well as the relevant unions and people involved in this day to day. We are very open on this. I cannot accept the amendment but I do not oppose it because we believe it is already in the legislation. We are all at one on this. We want to make sure justice is visible and public, as per the Supreme Court decision. We want to make sure people are comfortable in vindicating their rights, which is what this is about. The concerns expressed have been put forward on behalf of an employee, but the opposite is that it should encourage any employer to behave correctly, treat his or her employees correctly and make sure he or she does not abuse them and instead respects them. It is a two-way street. I believe the protections are in there and the legislation does allow for discretion, but discretion can only be allowed for. It cannot be guaranteed because discretion is about making decisions. I cannot put it in the Bill that discretion must be given. That is a decision that has to be made by the adjudicator.

The anonymisation of parties in a published decision is already provided for in the Bill. While the judgment of the court did not address the issue of automatic anonymisation, which is currently provided for in subsection (14), it is the Department’s view, supported by legal advice, that maintaining a policy of anonymisation of all published decisions is contrary to the requirement that justice be administered in public. We have to respect the Supreme Court decision. I am not opposing the Deputy. I have no choice, but we are trying to do the best that we can.

Paragraph (b) of subsection (14) provides an adjudication officer with the vireseffectively to direct the commission, if he or she is satisfied that special circumstances exist, not to name parties in the published decision. Again, I have to accept that the adjudicator is a reasonable person, has the qualifications to do the job and can make that decision. The discretion is clearly there but discretion is just that. I cannot go beyond that in the legislation. Beyond this, it is difficult to see how an adjudication officer or indeed any other party could reasonably be expected to predict with a degree of accuracy the potential future impact of being a named party in a decision and, accordingly, I cannot accept this amendment.

I commit here to engaging on the guidelines and the regulations. I am a totally open book on that and will sit down with anyone who wants to before those guidelines and regulations are finalised. The 12-month review was suggested by Deputy O'Reilly and committee members. I have accepted that. I have said before in the other House and will say it again that the review after 12 months is to ensure we have got this right. We have to respect the Supreme Court judgement and we are doing that as best we can while allowing for all possible scenarios. We want people to be able to use the WRC to vindicate employees' rights, as they already do successfully. That is what it is there for and it does a good job, in my view.

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