Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Last month the Council of Europe published its annual conclusions assessing member states' compliance with the European Social Charter on labour rights. The European Social Charter is a Council of Europe treaty that guarantees fundamental social and economic rights to member state citizens. Ireland is in breach of nine separate areas of rights relating to workers' terms and conditions of employment, and trade union rights. Among other matters, the Council of Europe found that the sub-minimum wage paid to workers aged 18 and 19 does not ensure a decent standard of living. Ireland's failure to meet obligations on the right to strike to certain categories of workers under the charter is also raised. Of course, these breaches will not come as news to the Government because these matters were raised with the previous Government four years ago but continue to go unaddressed.

The Minister of State, Deputy Neale Richmond, has admitted the Government is not where it should be - as he puts it - on collective bargaining. In fact, progress and commitments made by the Taoiseach when he was the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment have been glacial. Will the Taoiseach provide us with the timeline for the legislative recommendations on collective bargaining made by the high-level group on collective bargaining and industrial relations?

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