Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I join with the Deputy in thanking Patricia King for her service on the group and her general service in the past couple of decades. I interacted with her in many ways and on many levels in the past ten years or so. She is a very impressive person and I wish her the best in her future. As the Deputy is aware, Ms King will continue to be a member of the commission on housing and to bring her expertise to the table in that regard. In addition, I congratulate Owen Reidy on his recent appointment to his new role in ICTU.

To give the Deputy some assurance, we will get moving on this. The new directive is now European law. It is not a choice. We cannot ignore it, nor do we want to. The European directive requires us to have 70% or 80% of the working population covered by some form of collective bargaining. That does not necessarily mean being a member of a trade union or trade union recognition; it can be done through joint labour committees, JLCs, or different mechanisms. It is absolutely the case, however, that we need to make progress in this regard. We are only at about 30%, so the gap is large. I anticipate that there will be legislative change next year.

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