Gerald Nash (Louth, Labour)
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I move:

That, pursuant to Standing Order 177, Standing Order 131 is modified to permit an instruction to the Committee to which the Credit Guarantee (Amendment) Bill, 2015 may be recommitted in respect of certain amendments, that it has power to make provision in the Bill in relation to:(a) an amendment to section 37 of the Workplace Relations Act 2015 to make provision for the transitional arrangements that will apply in relation to the transfer of the power to prosecute for summary offences under relevant enactments from the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation to the Workplace Relations Commission; an amendment to Paragraph 5, Part 2 of Schedule 1 of the Workplace Relations Act 2015 to amend an incorrect reference;

(b) an amendment to the Employment Equality Act 1998 to insert a new section 101(4A) to ensure that a complainant cannot seek redress under both the Unfair Dismissals Act and the Employment Equality Act in respect of the same dismissal within the new framework for the adjudication of disputes under employment and equality legislation;

(c) an amendment to section 34 of the National Minimum Wage Act 2000 to correct a typographical error; and

(d) an amendment to section 916 of the Companies Act 2014 to correct a referencing error which has had the unintentional effect of limiting the power of the Irish Auditing and Accounting Supervisory Authority (IAASA) to levy the prescribed accountancy bodies for the purposes of meeting expenses properly incurred by it in performing its functions under the Act; and to change the title of the Bill and make other consequential amendments required to take account of the changes above.

Deputies will recall that I indicated on Committee Stage that I would be bringing forward these amendments on Report Stage. I understand Deputies will already have received an information note setting out the purpose of these amendments. As Deputies will be aware, my colleague, the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, has undertaken and recently completed an extensive programme of reform of the State's employment rights and industrial relations procedures. The legislation which has given statutory effect to the reform programme, namely, the Workplace Relations Act 2015, was enacted on 20 May last year. This legislation provides for the establishment of a new two-tier workplace relations structure to replace the previously existing five workplace relations bodies. A new single body of first instance called the Workplace Relations Commission was created from 1 October 2015 and a separate appeals body is in operation which is effectively an expanded Labour Court.

The Workplace Relations Commission, WRC, incorporates the functions of the Labour Relations Commission, including the Rights Commissioner Service, the Equality Tribunal, the first instance jurisdiction of the Employment Appeals Tribunal, and the National Employment Rights Authority, NERA. In addition, the WRC provides an early resolution service to facilitate and encourage the resolution of individual complaints at as early a stage as possible and so obviate the need for formal adjudication or investigation to the greatest extent possible. The Equality Tribunal, NERA and the Labour Relations Commission have been disestablished following the transfer of their functions to the WRC. The Employment Appeals Tribunal will be disestablished once it has dealt with the caseload submitted to it prior to 1 October 2015.

As Deputies who were involved in the legislative process will know, the Workplace Relations Act 2015 is complex legislation. It makes provision for the establishment of the new structures for the resolution and adjudication of complaints and disputes across the entire corpus of employment rights and equality legislation. As a result of the introduction of these new structures the Workplace Relations Act made consequential amendments to 24 primary Acts, including the National Minimum Wage Act 2000 and the Employment Equality Act 1998, 34 specified parts or sections of Acts and numerous statutory instruments.

The amendment to Section 37 of the Workplace Relations Act 2015 is essential to provide for the transitional arrangements that will apply in relation to the prosecution of summary offences under relevant enactments which had been instituted prior to the establishment of the Workplace Relations Commission on 1 October 2015. Section 37 of the Act cannot be commenced until this amendment has been effected.

The amendment to Schedule 1 of the Workplace Relations Act 2015 is of a drafting nature. This amendment is required to amend an incorrect reference to the Employment Permits Act 2006 which was included in paragraph 5 of Part 2 of Schedule 1 to the Workplace Relations Act 2015. Similarly, the amendment to section 34 of the National Minimum Wage Act 2000 is of a drafting nature and is required to correct a typographical error in the numbering of subparagraphs (6) and (7) within that section arising from an amendment to that Act by the Workplace Relations Act.

The amendment to the Employment Equality Act 1998 to insert a new section 101(4A) was initially provided for in section 83(1)(m)(iii) of the Workplace Relations Act 2015. However, this provision was inadvertently deleted by section 20(1)(n)(i) of the National Minimum Wage (Low Pay Commission) Act 2015 when a number of other amendments to the Workplace Relations Act were being effected. This amendment is essential to ensure that a person will not be able to obtain redress under both the Unfair Dismissals Act and the Employment Equality Act in respect of the same dismissal. The new section 101(4A) provides that a person who has referred a dismissal complaint under both the Unfair Dismissals Act and the Employment Equality Act has to elect between one or the other by a prescribed date or a date to be inferred from regulations by the Minister. If the person fails to elect by this date the discriminatory dismissal complaint will be deemed to have been withdrawn. Therefore, it will be necessary to make provision for section 101(4A) to be reinserted into the Employment Equality Act 1998.

The Companies Act 2014 was enacted on 23 December 2014 and commenced on 1 June 2015. The Act consolidated the 17 previously existing Companies Acts 1963 to 2013 into one Act and also introduced a number of reforms which are designed to make it easier to operate a company in Ireland. The 2014 Act repealed and replaced the Companies (Auditing and Accounting) Act 2003. The 2003 Act established Irish Auditing and Accounting Supervisory Authority, IAASA, and provided that it would be part-funded by the prescribed accountancy bodies. In particular, section 14 of the 2003 Act provided that the IAASA could levy prescribed accountancy bodies for the purposes of meeting expenses properly incurred by it in performing its functions. Section 916 of the Companies Act 2014 re-enacted section 14 of the 2003 Act but inadvertently limited the application of monies from the levy. The amendment will ensure that the IAASA can levy the prescribed accountancy bodies for the purposes of meeting expenses properly incurred by it in performing its functions as was intended.

Accordingly, it is proposed that these amendments to the Workplace Relations Act 2015, the Employment Equality Act 1998, the National Minimum Wage Act 2000 and the Companies Act 2014 will be effected through the Credit Guarantee (Amendment) Bill 2015.

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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We will be supporting all the amendments. They were signalled by the Minister of State on Committee Stage. This does, however, highlight a discussion all three of us have had. The Workplace Relations Act finished a process I started in 2010. It has taken far too long to bring it through. I know it is complex legislation and that there was a lot of consultation but, politics aside, we need to move faster on these things. The delay was nothing, however, in comparison to the Companies Act which was 12 years in the making and which we are already reviewing in the context of a discussion earlier this morning on Clery's. That Act has been hardly out the door and we are looking at it again. As this Dáil ends, the next Dáil needs to commit to not only political reform but legislative reform also. We can give legislation the scrutiny and consultation required but it should not take five or 12 years, in particular when the legislation relates to a sector that moves as fast as enterprise. Practices and ways of doing business change quickly and our laws need to be able to keep up to speed with those changes. I fully support the motion and Fianna Fáil will support the amendments.