Results 6,541-6,560 of 12,033 for speaker:Regina Doherty

Seanad: Employment (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2017: Committee Stage (4 Dec 2018)

Regina Doherty: The WRC has a year to initiate any prosecutions against an employer and that is what section 6B of the Terms of Employment (Information) Act 1994, as inserted by section 10 of this Bill, is going to provide for. It is to match the other offences that are already in existence in employment law. If the report on offences and penalties was to be laid before both Houses of the Oireachtas a year...

Seanad: Employment (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2017: Committee Stage (4 Dec 2018)

Regina Doherty: I am not sure where I gave the Senator the impression that I was afraid. I am absolutely not. I was trying to explain to the Senator that in primary legislation, and especially with regard to the 12 months that has been proposed in the amendment, any such report would be a blank page and would have very little information. It takes a while for new legislation to bed in and come into...

Seanad: Employment (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2017: Committee Stage (4 Dec 2018)

Regina Doherty: Section 13 of the Bill as passed by Dáil Éireann contained a definition of "employment regulation order" for the purposes of the Organisation of Working Time Act 1997. Employment regulation order, however, is already defined in section 16(2) of the Industrial Relations (Amendment) Act 2012. Consequently there is no need for two definitions of the term "employment regulation...

Seanad: Employment (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2017: Committee Stage (4 Dec 2018)

Regina Doherty: I apologise for looking like I did not know what the Senators were talking about, but I did not know until the end. The banded hours will change the situation and, therefore, we do not have the data. I am not sure where the anecdotal evidence came from to say that everybody is on 15 hours a week because not everybody is. It is our intention that the banded hours will resolve the issue...

Seanad: Employment (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2017: Committee Stage (4 Dec 2018)

Regina Doherty: I ask the Senator to discuss it with me after the debate. I do not understand the question and I do not want to make presumptions.

Seanad: Employment (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2017: Committee Stage (4 Dec 2018)

Regina Doherty: I understand and I thank the Senator. On the Senators' gentle inquiries, the Department contacted staff from the school earlier. I cannot take credit for it because I did not make personal contact, but the Department is good and mindful of these issues. Senator Ardagh may not have heard because the decision was made at Cabinet only this morning, but the Cabinet approved changes that will...

Seanad: Employment (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2017: Committee Stage (4 Dec 2018)

Regina Doherty: I will be cheeky and respond to Senator Higgins on the previous amendment because now I actually know what I am talking about. The 25% of the hours or the 15 hours provision she mentioned is already contained in section 18 of the Organisation of Working Time Act. It is in the compensation section. It has acted as a deterrent against zero-hour contracts in the past. We are simply putting a...

Seanad: Employment (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2017: Committee Stage (4 Dec 2018)

Regina Doherty: I thank the Senators. I do not know why Senator Ruane thinks that was the only issue we had in the Dáil. Not only was the provision discussed at length on Committee Stage in the Lower House, it was also discussed at length on Report Stage when I happened to convince enough people that it should not be accepted. That is why we reversed it. I was on my own during the Committee Stage...

Seanad: Employment (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2017: Committee Stage (4 Dec 2018)

Regina Doherty: There is. None of those Tesco workers, Dunnes Stores workers or any of the other people we are talking about - because in fairness we are not talking about teachers or the Defence Forces-----

Seanad: Employment (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2017: Committee Stage (4 Dec 2018)

Regina Doherty: Let us take a case. Let us get a band of 20 of them together and take a case under the current legislation and test it.

Seanad: Employment (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2017: Committee Stage (4 Dec 2018)

Regina Doherty: There has not.

Seanad: Employment (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2017: Committee Stage (4 Dec 2018)

Regina Doherty: How?

Seanad: Employment (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2017: Committee Stage (4 Dec 2018)

Regina Doherty: No. I am sorry, I actually do not.

Seanad: Employment (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2017: Committee Stage (4 Dec 2018)

Regina Doherty: The Bill was amended on Committee Stage. This was untested, not scrutinised and not discussed with any of our unions, social partners or employer organisations. The amendment was brought in by Deputy Clare Daly on Committee Stage. It was passed and I lost. The reason it was removed, when I brought an amendment back, was not because I said it would not work and did a little dance and said...

Seanad: Employment (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2017: Committee Stage (4 Dec 2018)

Regina Doherty: The point I was trying to make was that nobody has ever brought a case, so it does not matter whether it is in private or not.

Seanad: Employment (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2017: Committee Stage (4 Dec 2018)

Regina Doherty: I am sure that, as a solicitor, Senator Ardagh knows that all of the hearings of the WRC are held in private.

Seanad: Employment (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2017: Committee Stage (4 Dec 2018)

Regina Doherty: Only about 20% of the cases that go to the WRC are brought to the Labour Court. I acknowledge what the Senator is saying. As I said to Senator Craughwell earlier, if we have a body of work to do in order to convince people who may be afraid, I assure them that they have absolutely nothing to fear. All of the WRC cases are taken in private and only 20% of the cases are taken or appealed to...

Seanad: Employment (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2017: Committee Stage (4 Dec 2018)

Regina Doherty: The bands are so effective because not only is there a look-back at the previous 21 months, there is also the security of the position being set for the following 12 months. Once a person has been placed on a band of hours, he or she can never be given fewer hours. He or she can always be given more hours, which would have to be reflected in the next look-back in order to bring the person...

Seanad: Employment (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2017: Committee Stage (4 Dec 2018)

Regina Doherty: I would say that was a minority but that is just my opinion.

Seanad: Employment (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2017: Committee Stage (4 Dec 2018)

Regina Doherty: The Senator is grand. I might not be here.