Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Labour)
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Question 5: To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment when legislation to give statutory entitlements under work-life balance policies will be introduced; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [11287/06]

Tony Killeen (Clare, Fianna Fail)
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The challenge in achieving work-life balance in individual enterprises is to establish policies that reflect the reality of the workplace and meet the many diverse needs of employees. To this end, the development of work-life balance policies in Ireland is addressed on two fronts, first, through appropriate legislative measures which provide for statutory entitlements such as maternity leave, adoptive leave, carer's leave and parental leave as well as maximum working hours, rest periods, annual leave and public holiday entitlements and, second, through the voluntary approach which is supported by the work of the national framework committee for work-life balance policies.

The committee, which was established under the social partnership process and chaired by my Department, is charged with supporting and facilitating the development of family-friendly policies at the level of the enterprise through the development of a package of practical measures. One of the tasks of the committee is to examine how best to improve access to family-friendly working arrangements to realise the potential benefits that these arrangements would offer from an equality and competitiveness perspective.

The Government is committed to the two-pronged approach to achieving the goal of making workplaces more family friendly, namely, the provision of statutory entitlements through legislative measures and the voluntary approach at the level of the enterprise, which is encouraged at national level by the national framework committee for work-life balance policies.

Kathleen Lynch (Cork North Central, Labour)
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I thank the Minister of State for his reply but while a mission statement on work-life balance is fine, the question refers to what the Department intends to do to achieve it. We have just had a discussion on unscrupulous employers. The country is not full of unscrupulous employers. They are very few in number, thankfully, but they exist. People are working for such employers on a permanent or contract basis and we must be serious about legislating to ensure that their families can co-exist with a working life.

Yesterday we dealt with the Parental Leave (Amendment) Bill. Despite it being very welcome legislation which people are desperately awaiting, it is highly inflexible. The inflexibility regarding the time slots that can be taken, the gaps between the time slots and the period in a child's life in which leave can be taken must be lessened. The majority of people in the Republic——

Séamus Pattison (Carlow-Kilkenny, Labour)
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I must remind the Deputy that this is Question Time.

Kathleen Lynch (Cork North Central, Labour)
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——feel they work longer for less money than people in Northern Ireland. Apart from the one day of advertising undertaken annually on work-life balance, what does the Minister of State intend to do to ensure that such a balance is achieved? He has referred to legislation, most of which has a very small impact on people's lives over a very short period of time in the life of a child. What does the Minister of State intend to do with regard to inflexible employers?

Tony Killeen (Clare, Fianna Fail)
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I disagree strongly with Deputy Lynch with regard to the legislation that is already in place. Legislation governing maternity leave, adoptive leave and other issues has had a considerable impact.

Kathleen Lynch (Cork North Central, Labour)
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The impact is over a very concentrated period of time.

Tony Killeen (Clare, Fianna Fail)
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Nevertheless, it is a very important time.

Kathleen Lynch (Cork North Central, Labour)
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Yes.

Tony Killeen (Clare, Fianna Fail)
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The legislation has had a considerable impact. We will best address this issue by having a sensible mix of legislative provisions and voluntary partnership mechanisms. Traditionally we have looked to the partnership process at an exclusively national level and have not developed it at enterprise level to the extent that we might. As I mentioned, the group has made 42 recommendations. I am chairman of the high level group and am pleased with the level of co-operation from the employer and trade union representatives, as well as the various Departments that have a central involvement. People are clearly intent on ensuring that we deliver on as many as possible of the 42 recommendations, some of which are very far-reaching and go beyond even what Deputy Lynch might seek.

Senator White has legislation in the wings which is similar to legislation in the United Kingdom, which I am sure will be considered at some stage. This issue is central to the current social partnership negotiations.

Kathleen Lynch (Cork North Central, Labour)
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Yesterday, when the Select Committee on Justice, Equality, Defence and Women's Rights was dealing with the Parental Leave (Amendment) Bill, the Minister said that the updating of that legislation would depend on the outcome of the centralised bargaining process currently under way. Given that the aforementioned legislation came about as a result of the last centralised pay agreement four years ago, does the Minister of State envisage updating the legislation next year or in four years' time? This is particularly relevant considering we are talking about 14 weeks, while other countries provide for up to three years parental leave. What is the Minister of State's estimate on the timeframe in respect of ensuring that the critical years of a child's life are spent with parents who are not as harassed as many are currently?

Tony Killeen (Clare, Fianna Fail)
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No more than other Deputies, I am very poorly qualified to lecture anybody on family-friendly policies or family-friendly engagement in the workplace. However, we have made tremendous progress. While the legislative measures are enormously important, ultimately they can only work if we have, at enterprise level, a culture of ensuring that provision is made for people to carry on their family lives. Traditionally, the view was that needs relating to caring commitments were paramount but many people have now come to realise that people in the workplace have other interests they wish to pursue, alongside their working lives, including study, leisure and so forth. A balance is intrinsically important from the perspective of the individual employee. Many employers have realised that when they introduce policies which facilitate employees who have caring responsibilities or other interests, everybody benefits, including the employers, through increased productivity on the part of the employee.