Paul Coghlan (Fine Gael)

I welcome the Minister of State and thank him for his overview of the Bill. We welcome the Bill but once again must record that we are at a loss as to why it has taken this long for it to get to the floor of the House. This Bill is a transposition of an EU directive into Irish law. The process of consultation on this Bill began three years ago. The deadline for submissions from interested parties was September 2003. The original target date for enactment was March 2005 and it is now September 2005. I am sure the Minister of State will agree this is not good enough. I am aware that the drawing up of legislation is complicated. We have been the fiercest critics of the Government when it has attempted to rush through legislation as it did repeatedly, and hamfistedly, last year. For it to take three years for this Bill to get to the Seanad, and God knows how long it will take to get to the desk of the President, is too slow a work rate. The publication of the legislative agenda has shown just how light is the Government's schedule. The delay in getting this Bill to the House is a timely reminder of just how much remains to bedone.

It often amazes me that some legislation needs to be introduced at all, and this is one such Bill. It has always made good business sense to keep employees fully in the loop as to what is going on. Any manager knows that to keep morale and productivity high, he or she must make everyone feel like a stakeholder, a fully paid up member of the team.

Under the Bill, employers will have to provide information and consultation on issues such as the probable development of a firm's activities, the structure and future of employment in the business and any decisions likely to lead to major changes in work organisation or contracts. The Bill also obliges employers to provide enough information to enable worker representatives to make adequate preparations for consultation. Employers must begin negotiations to set up information and consultation procedures once 10% of employees make such a request.

The Labour Court will be able to investigate disputes about the operation of agreements. Employers could face fines of up to €30,000 for breaches of the proposed legislation.

This Bill is part of a suite of workers' rights legislation that has been brought to us from Europe. It is for reasons such as this that we are passionately pro-European. It is worth reminding the country that those on the far left who oppose the European project are being deceitful when they say that the EU is anything but a social project. It has been a leading force in securing better working conditions for Irish employees.

I thought that employers would be pleased with the provisions of this Bill and I was surprised to read of IBEC's reaction to it. Perhaps it has some genuine concerns that might have to be examined. However, I share the Minister of State's belief that the Bill does not tie the hands of business and its provisions are fairly flexible. For example, employers have the option under the Bill of putting in place agreements before a date to be prescribed following enactment of the Bill known as "pre-existing agreements", which can be tailor-made to suit the culture and circumstances of their own company. However, in a press statement on 19 September IBEC stated that any measures that make Irish business less able to adapt to changing global markets will undermine competitiveness and put jobs at risk. It further stated that companies that already have successful information and consultation procedures should be supported and allowed to continue without change.

I hope that when the legislation is enacted it will see that our competitiveness will not be undermined by this legislation. There are many Government actions and decisions that have hurt business and damaged our competitiveness; they gave birth to rip-off Ireland. However, this Bill is not one of those actions. Nevertheless, IBEC has concerns. I take the view, and I believe the Minister of State shares my view, that issues requiring amendment or clarification can be dealt with on Committee Stage. We will table a few amendments. I intend to examine IBEC's position. It wants a more flexible instrument that can cater for the wide diversity of employment situations in which employers and employees will have to operate information and consultation arrangements. We can examine that area, as suggested by the Minister of State, before the Bill is taken on Committee Stage.

I wish to raise two further points. The Bill specifically precludes companies with fewer than 50 employees. There may be a sound reason for this. Small firms have a particular need to be protected from overregulation and their distinctive competitive disadvantage means the Government must endeavour to protect them at all costs, not least because they tend to be indigenous. However, we must ensure that those who work in small firms are not treated as inferior to those who work in large companies. The fact that an employer has only 45 workers on his or her books does not mean that any of those employees should be treated with anything less than the respect and dignity as those who work for the Microsofts and Coca Colas of this world. I am interested in the Minister of State's views as to how the provision of information can be extended to everyone.

Before the summer recess my party's spokesman on enterprise, trade and employment, Deputy Pat Breen, who shares the same constituency as the Minister of State, met with a support group for the victims of workplace bullying. Members of the group had lost their livelihood and had to endure severe financial, emotional, psychological and medical hardship as a result of the way they were treated by their employers and colleagues. They told Deputy Breen that one of the crucial ways in which they had been mistreated was the withholding of information and the deliberate attempts by their tormentors to keep them in the dark and out of the decision-making process. They were without the information necessary for them to do their jobs.

I would like to hear the Minister of State's views on how legislation such as this may be used to enforce a legal obligation on employers to ensure nobody becomes the victim of an information black hole, a tool often used by those who wish to get rid of people they may regard as more competent, talented and worthy of a place in the company, than themselves. In conclusion, we welcome the Bill. We will examine and seek to amend it as I have indicated, and we will support it. Given the state of our roads it takes many Members of the Oireachtas a long time to get to Leinster House. It seems that this Bill, too, has been the victim of that slow progress. I wish it a speedier journey through the House than it has enjoyed in reaching us. I wish the Minister of State the best of luck with it.