Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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Question 37: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment when it is intended to publish the Industrial Relations Bill which is required to provide for the continued operation of the joint labour committee and the registered employment agreement system, which was promised under the Review of Towards 2016; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [27440/09]

Billy Kelleher (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail)
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In the context of the Review and Transitional Agreement 2008-2009, the Government and the social partners agreed to the implementation of a series of measures, including the introduction of legislation, to strengthen the existing system for the making of both employment regulation orders and registered employment agreements and to provide for their continued effective operation. The Bill to give effect to this commitment will be published as soon as possible.

Willie Penrose (Longford-Westmeath, Labour)
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I thank the Minister of State. This is important because it fulfils a commitment made under the 2016 agreement. It is important that the measures are aimed at modernising and streamlining the joint labour committee systems, including the rationalisation of the number of the committees involved and the appointment of professional chairpersons with experience. Does the Minister of State consider that bringing forward the Bill would give an impetus to the resolution of the current dispute which we will debate later today?

Billy Kelleher (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail)
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We urge all parties involved in the present dispute to use the industrial relations machinery available to them and engage with the Labour Relations Commission because this is having a profound impact on the economy, as well as the immediate issue. The purpose of the Bill is to strengthen the joint labour committees and the employment regulation orders. There was a commitment to streamline them but the hotel and catering sector and consequently the electrical contractors launched legal challenges to them. The High Court found the law to be defective. The commitment remains and we will publish the Bill quite soon but I doubt whether the Bill, published or unpublished, would have any impact on the present dispute. I urge those involved to engage with the industrial relations machinery available to them.

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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I am not sure what "streamlined" means in this context.

Billy Kelleher (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail)
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We wish to amalgamate them in order to have fewer of them.

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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We do not need legislation for that. A number of them, including the catering one, have been amalgamated already. The issue which may require legislation is the fact that the courts may determine that employment regulation orders, EROs, are not legal because they have the sanction of the Labour Court and not ministerial sanction. I understand that one of the actions that may be dealt with in the Bill is that if this court case goes in a certain way, all EROs would fall as they would never have had legal weight. This Bill would require the Minister, rather than just the Labour Court, to sign off on all EROs. Legislation on those grounds would seem reasonable.

We also need to go further. Does the Tánaiste agree that there must be more far-reaching reform of the way joint labour committees, JLCs, and employment regulation orders work? With regard to the role of representative bodies, should there not be legislative definition of whether a body is representative of most employees? On many of these, they are not entirely representative, and there must be a clearer legal definition of the role of the chairperson. It is the case that with joint labour committees and EROs, the chairperson's casting vote determines the outcome. Unlike what we have with the electricians, it is not an agreement, and employment regulation orders are imposed by a committee. Often, they are not agreements at all and they are not claimed to be such.

Billy Kelleher (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail)
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There are two issues at stake; first and foremost there was a commitment in Towards 2016 that there would be a streamlining of the JLCs. As there are too many of them, we wanted to streamline them in order to have strong representation. There is also the issue of the independence of a chairperson.

Since then there have been challenges to the way we make the orders and it is required in the legislation that we would have the cover of the Oireachtas through ministerial order rather than us delegating too many functions from this House to the Labour Court. That was the issue challenged in the courts. I am sure people would not object to the streamlining of JLCs but in the actual detail-----

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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What about the other two issues?

Billy Kelleher (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail)
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What issues?

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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There is the use of a chairman's vote to determine outcome and the question of whether members of the committee are actually representative of their industry.

Billy Kelleher (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail)
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We will examine the issue of the independence of the chair but ultimately there is representation from both sides. Very often it is split exactly in half and the independent chair has the casting vote.

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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Who chooses the representatives?

Billy Kelleher (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail)
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Is the Deputy suggesting that one side should have a majority? That would not work either. It is important to get the balance right.

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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There should be agreement on it.

Billy Kelleher (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail)
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There are difficulties with the current strike and there is an element of that in this issue. We would like to see the JLC system strengthened and broadly representative. The issue of the independent chair can be considered but the two fundamental issues are the legislation to strengthen the JLC system and the streamlining of the JLCs themselves.