Results 8,481-8,500 of 32,583 for speaker:Richard Bruton

Protection of Employees (Temporary Agency Work) Bill 2011: From the Seanad (9 May 2012)

Richard Bruton: During the passage of the Bill through both Houses of the Oireachtas, the provisions providing for retrospection to 5 December 2011 have been the source of considerable debate. Section 1 as originally passed by the Dáil provided that with the exception of the provisions relating to offences or the instigation of legal proceedings, all other provisions of the Bill would be deemed to have...

Protection of Employees (Temporary Agency Work) Bill 2011: From the Seanad (9 May 2012)

Richard Bruton: I thank Deputy O'Dea for his support in this regard. We discussed the Attorney General's advice at length on a previous occasion and that is a robust way to go. However, the reason I have focused the amendment on pay is in light of the concerns regarding the practicality of seeking to enforce back to 5 December 2011. Seeking to disentangle some of the other items would pose a practical...

Protection of Employees (Temporary Agency Work) Bill 2011: From the Seanad (9 May 2012)

Richard Bruton: Seanad amendments Nos. 2 and 15 are technical amendments. It is the practice in drafting legislation that where there is a reference to another enactment on more than one occasion, the definition of the enactment is included in the interpretation section and the enactment is thereafter referred to by its shorter title. This is the effect of Seanad amendments Nos. 2 and 15. Seanad amendment...

Protection of Employees (Temporary Agency Work) Bill 2011: From the Seanad (9 May 2012)

Richard Bruton: Yes.

Protection of Employees (Temporary Agency Work) Bill 2011: From the Seanad (9 May 2012)

Richard Bruton: These are the more substantive amendments. Amendments Nos. 4, 5 and 6 relate to section 7 of the Bill as passed by the Dáil. These provisions go to the core of the Bill and have been the subject of considerable and valuable debate in both Houses. The original formulation of section 7 referenced two distinct situations, namely, where there is a comparable employee against whom the agency...

Protection of Employees (Temporary Agency Work) Bill 2011: From the Seanad (9 May 2012)

Richard Bruton: The intention was to provide clarity for employers and agency workers in terms of where they stood. The problem with the comparator was that such person may have been employed when conditions in the labour market were different and issues in terms of experience and so on may have arisen. We used the comparator in the first formulation of the legislation. We then tried to modify it to take...

Protection of Employees (Temporary Agency Work) Bill 2011: From the Seanad (9 May 2012)

Richard Bruton: Seanad amendment No. 8 proposes the inclusion of an entirely new section in the Bill. This amendment is particularly important given the revision of section 7 of the Bill that deals with conferring on agency workers entitlement to basic working and employment conditions. Section 7 now follows closely the wording of article 5 of the directive. As a consequence, this requires that measures...

Protection of Employees (Temporary Agency Work) Bill 2011: From the Seanad (9 May 2012)

Richard Bruton: There is broad support in the House for this amendment.

Protection of Employees (Temporary Agency Work) Bill 2011: From the Seanad (9 May 2012)

Richard Bruton: This proposed amendment is purely technical and relates to an amendment to section 8 of the Bill that deal with collective agreements. The reason for this amendment is that section 8(1) allows for a body or bodies representative of employees to agree to a collective agreement. However, the language in section 8(4)(c) refers only to a body, that is, it describes the body that negotiated the...

Protection of Employees (Temporary Agency Work) Bill 2011: From the Seanad (9 May 2012)

Richard Bruton: This too is a technical amendment to section 9 of the Bill, as passed by the Dáil, and it seeks to ensure that for purposes only of equal treatment of working and employment conditions for agency workers that are part-time employees, it is the provisions of this legislation and not that of part-time legislation that applies. In effect, this means that whereas in part-time legislation, the...

Protection of Employees (Temporary Agency Work) Bill 2011: From the Seanad (9 May 2012)

Richard Bruton: It is if there was slight pressure on the facilities and there was a queuing mechanism - in other words, that a reasonable approach would apply in allowing orderly access to the facilities. It would not be to so constrain the employer that those sort of normal provisions would not be acceptable.

Protection of Employees (Temporary Agency Work) Bill 2011: From the Seanad (9 May 2012)

Richard Bruton: I take the opportunity to thank Deputies and Senators for their very constructive contributions to the debate. The Bill, as passed, is better than the one introduced. This is due to the vigilance of Members, in that they drew our attention to difficulties that might have been from the original drafting. I acknowledge the work done by Members as well as by my officials and those of the...

Written Answers — EU Directives: EU Directives (9 May 2012)

Richard Bruton: As stated in my previous reply, Directive 2006/123/EC [the Services Directive] on services in the internal market was transposed into Irish law by way of S. I. No. 533 of 2010, (European Communities (Provision of Services) Regulations 2010) and S. I. No. 555, (European Communities (Court Orders for the Protection of Consumer Interests) Regulations, 2010). The Directive is not concerned...

Written Answers — Ministerial Staff: Ministerial Staff (9 May 2012)

Richard Bruton: The following tables outline the number of persons employed in my private and constituency office and also in each Minister of State's office at 9th May 2011 and 9th May 2012. Office Staff Numbers at9th May 2011 Staff Numbers at9th May, 2012 Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation Private Office2 Special Advisers1 Private Secretary2 Executive Officers5 Clerical OfficersConstituency...

Written Answers — Industrial Disputes: Industrial Disputes (9 May 2012)

Richard Bruton: Industrial action by 110 workers at the Irish Cement production plants at Platin, Co Meath and Castlemungret, Co Limerick began on 3rd April last. I understand that the Labour Court's most recent Recommendation of January 2012 in relation to this dispute was the culmination of a protracted dialogue between the company and the group of unions representing the workers on restructuring issues...

Written Answers — Unfair Dismissals: Unfair Dismissals (10 May 2012)

Richard Bruton: The Unfair Dismissals Acts apply to employees over the age of 16 years with at least 12 months' continuous service. The Acts provide for a number of grounds under which a dismissal may be considered unfair. A claim for unfair dismissal against an employer may be brought under certain conditions. It is then a matter for an employer to show there were fair grounds for the dismissal. Generally...

Written Answers — State Agencies: State Agencies (10 May 2012)

Richard Bruton: The costs of administration of IDA Ireland's overseas offices and the assignment of staff to such offices are day-to-day matters for the agency and ones for which I do not have direct responsibility. As it has not been possible for IDA Ireland to compile the data requested within the time period available, I have asked the CEO of IDA Ireland to forward it directly to the Deputy.

Written Answers — State Agencies: State Agencies (10 May 2012)

Richard Bruton: The costs of Enterprise Ireland offices are a day-to-day operational matter for the Agency. I have referred the question to Enterprise Ireland for direct response to the Deputy.

Written Answers — Industrial Disputes: Industrial Disputes (10 May 2012)

Richard Bruton: Workers at the Lagan Brick factory in Kingscourt, Co Cavan have been involved in a protest outside the company's premises in a dispute over the decision by the company to close its operation on 15 December last with the loss of 29 jobs. The union wanted to retain maximum employment at the plant and secure satisfactory redundancy terms for any workers that would lose their jobs. Subsequently,...

Written Answers — Unfair Dismissals: Unfair Dismissals (10 May 2012)

Richard Bruton: The introduction of a Single Workplace Relations Complaint Form was one of a number of initiatives announced by me in July last year as part of a programme to reform the delivery of the State's workplace relations services. The Form is available both online for completion on PCs and as a manual version. The first release of the Single Complaint Form, which deals with over 100 first instance...