Joe O'Toole (Independent)

I move amendment No. 1:

In page 3, subsection (1), to delete lines 15 to 17.

I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Killeen. I realise he has put a great deal of work into the legislation. As I said on Committee Stage, this is crucial legislation, elements of which must be examined, tweaked and perhaps changed. In a sense, the effect of the amendment is to throw out the baby with the bath water. What I want to get rid of is the last phrase which reads, "or appointed by the employer on a basis agreed with employees". People should be elected in all cases. I would be happy to accept a lesser amendment that would simply get rid of the entitlement of an employer to appoint the representative, which I consider unacceptable.

The whole context, thrust and spirit of the legislation requires an election. I do not consider it acceptable that the appointment be made by the employer. There should be an election. It may be the case that only two names would go forward for two places which means that an actual election would not have to take place but it still would be an electoral process the same way as in any other system. Moving it away from that would allow a situation to develop where unfair pressure could be put on employees to accept something with which they might not agree. It is not necessary to have that provision and in the context of what the Minister of State said in setting out the Bill on Second Stage, it is appropriate to look on this as an important election, an exercise in democracy and that this would be the only way we could move this forward.