Pa Daly (Kerry, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for the fact the Bill is unopposed. We are open to working with him and with any of the other Senators who are working on this issue. In my own experience at work, although I did not do very many employment law cases, anyone who came in with a problem in the workplace was not unionised and they had been messed around because there was no backup for them in the workplace. It is important to have small pieces of legislation pushing along in one direction to help them because the system tends to work against them.

I recall that on Kerry County Council, we asked that any contracts that the council undertakes would deal only with unionised workplaces or workplaces that say someone is welcome to have a union in the workplace. I remember that the reply we received came from a firm of solicitors engaged by Kerry County Council. When I looked at the main page of its website, it said “How to hire and fire - an employer’s guide”. That is what an ordinary worker is up against. Hopefully, we can all work together on this small issue to try to push things along. As Deputy Nash said, we can work together so people are not put out in terms of their time and expense, like Mike, who I mentioned at the start, and who travelled up from Kerry at his own time and expense to do a job that could not take place, despite having a young family.

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