David Cullinane (Sinn Fein)

I regret the amendments were ruled out of order and wish to take the opportunity to raise my concerns by speaking to the section, although I support the section and will not push the question to a vote. We were seeking that all terms and conditions of agency workers would be comparable with those of directly employed workers.

Section 2(1) sets out the position in regard to terms and conditions, including pay, working time, rest periods rest breaks during the working day, night work, annual leave and public holidays. While I accept all of the conditions listed, it is by no means an exhaustive list. Permanent workers have many other entitlements which are not included in that list. We were seeking to provide, not that all conditions be listed, because there could be thousands of conditions to which an employee is entitled, but that whatever conditions apply to a permanent worker would apply to an agency worker. I am speaking in this regard of comparing like with like. We are not seeking that a temporary agency worker would have the same rights as a permanent worker but that he or she would have the same rights as a directly employed person who is a part-time worker and that a permanent agency worker would have the same entitlements as a permanent worker. I am talking about like for like.

Section 2(1) states that sick pay and pension scheme payments are excluded, which I do not understand. The Government is currently considering the proposal that employers meet workers' entitlements in respect of the first three days of sick pay. I raised this issue on Second Stage. If I understood him correctly, the Minister said that the agency worker is not employed by the person for whom he or she may be working, which is part of the problem. If an agency does not provide a pension and the organisation for whom a person is working is not obliged to provide a pension then workers could end up in limbo. What we are trying to do - whether people see this as ideological or not is of no consequence to me - is to ensure there is equity between workers.

We had a number of good discussions in this House on pensions. The Government is encouraging people to take out pensions. We are all aware that we have an ageing population and that pensions will be a big issue in the future. People know that the state pension could potentially be cut at some point in the future, if not by this Government then by a future Government. Issues have already arisen in relation to private pensions. The Government, while encouraging people to take out private pensions, is for whatever reason excluding pension schemes from this provision.

Perhaps the Minister of State will explain the reason the amendments were ruled out of order and clarify the reason sick pay and pension schemes are excluded from this legislation.