Joe O'Toole (Independent)

I welcome this legislation. I pay tribute to the Minister of State's contribution to the Bill and the flexibility and openness with which he dealt with it. We have had many rows over the years on many issues but this Bill has been improved substantially since it was first drafted and aspects of it which were of concern to the trade union side have been resolved.

I agree with Senator McDowell when he says that the Bill is a compromise. I supported it on every Stage and did not table amendments to it. It is what we agreed and we sweated blood to produce it. It is extraordinary that the employers and business people of Ireland do not have sufficient confidence in themselves to recognise trade unions. The situations to which this legislation will apply are currently dealt with by a protocol. The employers' side decided to play ducks and drakes with the protocol and to drag it out, make it impossible to work, reduce its credibility and ensure that people did not have confidence in it. Discussions and negotiations on the partnership agreement were blocked on this issue because the ordinary members of trade unions did not accept that they could be equal partners if their unions were not recognised by the other side. This is a crucial point for the future.

The law is so designed at present that trade unions must be amenable to the law of the land and play by the rules. It is in everyone's interests that each side recognise the rights of the other.

This legislation will stop the playboys in the business world who try to make negotiation difficult. There will now always be a way of dealing with a dispute. The resolution of a dispute should leave no one completely happy.

I welcome this legislation and I welcome the openness of the Minister of State, Deputy Fahey, in dealing with it. He did not meet all the demands of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions but he was open and flexible. His officials put extraordinary work into this Bill in the past two years. Last week, when I spoke to the president of SIPTU, Mr. Jack O'Connor, he said the sooner we get this legislation into operation, the better as it will give people trust and confidence in the system.