Neale Richmond (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for this question. I do not think either of us thought it would be reached, but it is good it has been.

This was discussed quite recently at a meeting of the Labour Employer Economic Forum, LEEF, between Ministers, employer representatives and representatives of trade unions. The high-level working group's recommendations will now be taken into consideration. They are going to a subgroup of the LEEF where we will discuss this and work it out.

There are also, parallel to this, new European instructions to a recommendation on social dialogue whereby Ireland will have to engage with the European Commission as well as with other EU member states to see if we can maintain our levels of collective bargaining up to what is the agreed European rate. Let us be frank; we are not probably where we should be-----

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