Joanna Tuffy (Labour)

The amendment does more than just require the employer to respond in a prescribed way. It places the onus on the employer to have a reason that he or she will not be flexible. In the current situation, it is very much dependent on the employer being flexible. The amendment seeks to require the employer to be flexible unless it is not possible for him or her to be so because of the nature of the business, for example. This type of provision is intended to deal with people who do not have a culture of allowing such leave by trying to force them to operate more flexibly, unless it is not genuinely in their interests as a business.

I do not see why we cannot introduce this type of provision since we have such provisions in other legislation, whereby one can put it up to the employer to explain his or her position. The Minister of State suggested that they would go through the motions of explaining why it is not possible, but they must have a genuine reason that it is not possible.