Michael McDowell (Dublin South East, Progressive Democrats)

Yes, but one is dealing with the commonsense of the district court Judiciary and the Circuit Court on appeal. If an owner was to say he would be bankrupt if he had to close on Fridays and that he would have to issue redundancy notices, it might be that in the fullness of time he would have to contemplate the whole solvency of his business or whatever. This is not designed to deal with cases where companies would run into difficulty and become financially insolvent and ensure that nobody would be prejudiced in that context.

The clear meaning of subsection (8) is to save employees from being victimised by their employer. A brazen employer could say to the District Court judge that he was going on his annual holidays and intended to sack his staff. I want to have a workable law where the employees do not end up being the people who suffer if the premises is closed. It is not designed to hammer poor employers.