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

I thank the Deputies for their questions.

As the House knows, Ireland is required to transpose the EU directive on adequate minimum wages and collective bargaining. I began the work of doing that during my previous role as Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment. On the adequate minimum wage side, there is not much that we have to do. Our laws are already up to the European standard, and indeed ahead of them. We have a Low Pay Commission, and a national minimum wage that is the sixth- or seventh-highest in the EU, even when one takes account of the cost of living. We have a plan to introduce a living wage that is being phased in and that will be pitched at 60% of median earnings. That is all very much under way, and we are entirely compliant with the directive already.

On collective bargaining, we have some work to do. We are developing a two-year action plan to implement that directive, and we will implement it, and transpose it into Irish law. There is an engagement ongoing between employers' groups, unions and Government on that, under the auspices of the Labour Employer Economic Forum, LEEF.

In the round, I agree that collective bargaining is a good thing. It enhances workers' rights and terms and conditions, advances social progress, and can lead to increased industrial productivity. We need to get our laws right in this regard, and there is a bit of work to do there still.

I will never forget something a very senior trade union official said to me once. It was that you can force people by law to meet, but you cannot force them to negotiate in good faith and you certainly cannot force them to agree. Ultimately, decisions will be made by a ballot of union members and by a decision of the board or shareholders. That can be taken away by moving towards a judicial process of industrial relations where unions and employers cannot say "No", but as I do not think that is the route we want to go down in Ireland, we need to get the laws right. Work is being done on that.

In regard to the Tesco dispute; as is the case with any industrial relations dispute, there are processes and systems to be followed. I am not going to express a view on the detail of it, but I do think the company should engage or at least meet with Mandate. I do not think anything could be lost from that. As I said earlier, to meet with somebody is not necessarily to agree, but the company should not refuse to meet the representatives of the workers there, provided it can be established that the workers want to be represented by that particular union and their representatives.

In relation to St. Michael's House, I answered a question on that yesterday. I will send a note to Deputy O'Callaghan with some more information on it. The Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, is engaging on the issue and is trying to find a solution for the school leavers affected.

Deputy Barry raises the very important issue of the attacks and protests that are occurring at our libraries and against some librarians. I want to express my solidarity with the library service and people who work in libraries. This is not a country that bans books because people do not agree with the contents of them. In places where they ban books, it is shortly after that that they start burning books and then sometimes burning people. That is not a road we are going to go down as a country. We do support our librarians. Libraries are not just a place where books are stored or loaned out; they are a repository of information and provide access to knowledge for people. It is important that we make sure that librarians are supported in their jobs and feel safe in their jobs. That is what the Government is committed to.

Deputy Ó Murchú raised once again the issue of cross-Border workers and the interplay of our different revenue and welfare laws North and South. It is a complicated area and it is difficult to get right, but certainly we will talk to the Revenue and the British authorities as well. We would certainly be open to an agreement that would work, but it is never straightforward.

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