Feargal Quinn (Independent)

This man employs thousands around the world and hundreds in Ireland. However, he said we should be careful about foreign direct investment and what those who have a choice of where to invest might think. We must ensure we do the right thing and do not stifle the enthusiasm that has made Ireland high on their agenda.

Senator O'Rourke has spoken wisely about education and about her second point on social partnership. However, it is beneficial not to have too many regulations. Only a couple of weeks ago, Mr. Barroso announced that the EU had too many regulations. I understand he also said that insufficient attention had been paid to the question of subsidiarity and he wiped out 80 regulations. The idea was to make Europe more competitive around the world. We have competitors, not just in Europe or eastern Europe, who examine the directives and regulations coming through and who attempt to make their own regulations a little more attractive to foreign direct investment. We should not be afraid to state that we are in competition. We should recognise that we are in competition each time we examine whether this is the right place for someone to invest. We have done very well over recent years and should not damage this by introducing any stipulations that make us less attractive.

Members will have seen the figures published yesterday from the World Economic Forum in Davos where Ireland which used to be the fourth most competitive nation is now in 26th position. This is an improvement from the position of 30th we attained last year. I have a real problem with the regulations we introduce without considering if they may stifle the enthusiasm of foreign direct investors to come here. We do not perform regulatory impact analysis on all legislation and should do so. When this legislation is introduced, I want to establish whether we are doing the right thing and if we are doing it in a manner that will at least encourage our economy to continue to thrive and perform as well as it has in the past.

I wish to highlight some instances of some areas which concern me in this respect. For example, there is the question of those employers who do not traditionally deal with trade unions. As Senator White noted, only 25% of privately owned businesses here are now unionised. In the United States, the figure is even lower. I understand the percentage of unionised workers there is down to 18%. Many similar economies are very successful. We do not want to stifle the enthusiasm of someone thinking of opening in Ireland by insisting that he or she must operate in an unfamiliar fashion. We must be careful this Bill does not permit that to happen.

Senator O'Toole raised the question of confidentiality, which is dealt with in section 14 and which outlines the role of experts. The confidentiality aspect might scare some people. One could be forced to deal with someone from outside the company who in turn would be obliged to treat the information as confidential. However, this does not always happen. It fails on that basis because people do not always adhere to confidentiality.

I also wish to discuss the case made concerning the trigger mechanism for opening negotiations and in particular, the number of people for whom this applies. The figure of 10% has been discussed, which is understandable. If 10% of a company's employees want consultations to take place in the manner outlined, that must be recognised. However, what happens in a company like Intel, which has 5,000 employees in Ireland? The legislation proposes a maximum of 100 employees can trigger negotiations. In the case of Intel, if 100 employees stated that they wanted to trigger negotiations, that is only 2% of the workforce. Usually, at least 2% or 3% of employees in any company are, shall we say, wildcats. I would hate to find that this figure means that 2% of the employees in a large company could trigger the mechanism that puts the process into place. This is why I mentioned my concern about the Minister's closing remarks to the effect that he is introducing the Bill — after a long period has elapsed — but plans to introduce amendments. I hope the amendments planned by the Minister will strengthen our ability to compete on the European and world stages and will be in the interests of those foreign direct investors who are thinking of coming to Ireland. They have other choices around the world. We should ensure that we do nothing to reduce Ireland's ability to be competitive.

Some years ago, I visited St. Petersburg, or Leningrad as it was at the time. Having seen the wonderful museums and other sights, I remember asking if I could see a grocery shop. After permission was granted, I was taken out to a supermarket on the outskirts. It was the worst grocery store I ever saw. The products and services were poor and the man behind the counter had a cigarette in his mouth. It was terrible. I asked him if he could tell me how many customers the shop served. He replied that the shop had 5,400 customers. I was very impressed that he had access to this information and asked him if he got it from the old-fashioned cash registers. He replied that 5,400 was the number of people who lived in the town. I asked him if they all shopped there and he replied that of course they did.