Tony Killeen (Clare, Fianna Fail)

Senator McDowell is correct regarding amendment No. 14. I am assured that the Labour Court has full discretion in this area, including the discretion to hold fresh elections. I suppose that may well be the likeliest outcome in any event.

Before Senator McDowell arrived, I pointed out that the principle of amendment No. 12 was interesting. What we have tried to do in transposing the directive is to allow the maximum flexibility. It is also very much in our interests to ensure that whatever local arrangements have traditionally been in place would be invoked on this occasion to ensure that companies embrace the opportunity which this Bill affords them.

Having spoken to many people, I have been made aware of numerous different practices in many places. The Bill would suffer quite badly by the exclusion of "appointed" as it appears right through the Bill. If it were to be deleted on one of the occasions, or altered, it would have to be altered elsewhere, so it would not be practicable to do so in this instance. It is clear that "elected" is the first choice. We went through this in some detail before, and in situations where people are not offering, the option of "appointment" only then comes into play. That is something I considered since the last occasion and might consider further in the future, but I am happy with the situation as it now stands.