Results 2,581-2,600 of 4,465 for speaker:Jim Walsh
- Seanad: Protection of Employees (Temporary Agency Work) Bill 2011: Committee Stage (1 Mar 2012)
Jim Walsh: I agree with Senator Feargal Quinn on this amendment. For as long as I have been a Member of this House, it has always been stated retrospective legislation does not comply with the Constitution. When the Minister spoke on Second Stage, he said he had received legal advice that the legislation was in order. However, the same happened in the case of the nursing home Bill and when it was...
- Seanad: Protection of Employees (Temporary Agency Work) Bill 2011: Committee Stage (1 Mar 2012)
Jim Walsh: People are at their wits' end wondering how they will survive and pay their bills this week. They are good people who have worked all their lives. The least they can expect from us in the recession which has hit them is not rhetoric - the 100,000 jobs have now been announced three times - but effective action to ensure there will be no more job losses in the economy. On Second Stage I...
- Seanad: Protection of Employees (Temporary Agency Work) Bill 2011: Committee Stage (1 Mar 2012)
Jim Walsh: This is about employment, something with which Sinn Féin would not be too familiar.
- Seanad: Protection of Employees (Temporary Agency Work) Bill 2011: Committee Stage (1 Mar 2012)
Jim Walsh: That is correct.
- Seanad: Protection of Employees (Temporary Agency Work) Bill 2011: Committee Stage (1 Mar 2012)
Jim Walsh: I know it well.
- Seanad: Protection of Employees (Temporary Agency Work) Bill 2011: Committee Stage (1 Mar 2012)
Jim Walsh: I wish to make the point, although Senator Mary Ann O'Brien has made it for the benefit of Senator Cullinane, that there are companies utilising agency workers where those workers themselves are quite happy with the rates of pay they are getting and the permanent employees are happy with the arrangement around the agency workers. It is the permanent workforce in some of these companies,...
- Seanad: Protection of Employees (Temporary Agency Work) Bill 2011: Committee Stage (1 Mar 2012)
Jim Walsh: I denounce any Member of this House who does not espouse those values.
- Seanad: Protection of Employees (Temporary Agency Work) Bill 2011: Committee Stage (1 Mar 2012)
Jim Walsh: Three thousand people are dead because of what your party did.
- Seanad: Protection of Employees (Temporary Agency Work) Bill 2011: Committee Stage (1 Mar 2012)
Jim Walsh: I am somewhat sympathetic to the point made by Senator Cullinane in relation to pensions.
- Seanad: Protection of Employees (Temporary Agency Work) Bill 2011: Committee Stage (1 Mar 2012)
Jim Walsh: Yes, and on the points raised in that regard by Senator Cullinane. While I do not believe pensions should be covered by this legislation, the issue needs to be addressed as a matter of priority. Only approximately 50% of the population have pensions cover. The Government's raiding of pension funds has had a negative impact on people in terms of their taking out pensions. We should be...
- Seanad: Protection of Employees (Temporary Agency Work) Bill 2011: Committee Stage (1 Mar 2012)
Jim Walsh: Amendment No. 4 has been designed to bring additional clarity to the position on agency workers. Paragraph (c)(i) states "that employee and the agency worker do the same work under the same or similar conditions or each is interchangeable with the other in relation to the work". If they are interchangeable, this obviously means that they should possess equal skills. Senator Feargal Quinn...
- Seanad: Protection of Employees (Temporary Agency Work) Bill 2011: Committee Stage (1 Mar 2012)
Jim Walsh: Yes. My concern is that this could lead to a situation where companies would be obliged to cease operations which would lead to agency workers and permanent employees going on the dole. If that proves to be the case, we will have done a bad day's work. That is the nub of the issue. Therefore, every precaution should be taken by means of provisions in the legislation to try to avoid the...
- Seanad: Protection of Employees (Temporary Agency Work) Bill 2011: Committee Stage (1 Mar 2012)
Jim Walsh: They may be. To which amendment is the Leas-Chathaoirleach referring?
- Seanad: Protection of Employees (Temporary Agency Work) Bill 2011: Committee Stage (1 Mar 2012)
Jim Walsh: No.
- Seanad: Protection of Employees (Temporary Agency Work) Bill 2011: Committee Stage (1 Mar 2012)
Jim Walsh: The case for what we are trying to achieve has been well made by Senators Mary Ann O'Brien and Feargal Quinn. As has been said, we are seeking to provide that agency workers would be entitled to the same conditions and terms of employment as a person directly recruited by a company today. I recall what the Minister had to say about teachers when in the House for the debate on Second Stage....
- Seanad: Protection of Employees (Temporary Agency Work) Bill 2011: Committee Stage (1 Mar 2012)
Jim Walsh: What about the comparable worker?
- Seanad: Protection of Employees (Temporary Agency Work) Bill 2011: Committee Stage (1 Mar 2012)
Jim Walsh: I do not want to interrupt the Minister of State-----
- Seanad: Protection of Employees (Temporary Agency Work) Bill 2011: Committee Stage (1 Mar 2012)
Jim Walsh: To clarify-----
- Seanad: Protection of Employees (Temporary Agency Work) Bill 2011: Committee Stage (1 Mar 2012)
Jim Walsh: There could be a company with somebody on a 2007 rate of pay.
- Seanad: Protection of Employees (Temporary Agency Work) Bill 2011: Committee Stage (1 Mar 2012)
Jim Walsh: They may not have had anybody recruited on that rate since 2007. What would the issue be?