Tony Killeen (Clare, Fianna Fail)

Were the amendment accepted as presented, it would have the effect, which Senator O'Toole said is unintended, of providing a right for a trade union or excepted body to make a request to an employer for details of employee numbers even if it had no members working in that particular undertaking, which would not be desirable. We must remember the context as we are merely discussing establishing the number of workers in the undertaking for the purpose of the Bill. It relates to the method of calculating workforce thresholds. I have gone a considerable distance, as far as anyone could reasonably ask, to safeguard the anonymity of employees who seek this type of information and their ability to use the Labour Court or its nominees. There is no difficulty for individual workers or groups of workers who seek this information, as it is very well addressed by the Bill. The situation resulting from this amendment would not be reasonable.