David Cullinane (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I apologise to the Minister of State for my late arrival. I got here as soon as I could from another meeting but am disappointed to have missed the debate on the earlier amendments. We received the clár for this week very late and there were a couple of errors in tabled amendments. We did not get ours in on time and will, therefore, be tabling several proposals on Report Stage.

The Minister of State knows we broadly support the provisions in the Bill, including the introduction of local enterprise offices, although our Report Stage amendments will address some specific issues. However, we also have a more general concern. We have been contacted by trade union representatives who are concerned that grant aid might be made available to companies that are not in compliance with labour law and, in some cases, are in serious breach of that law. Our amendments will seek to tie support for grant aid with compliance with labour law.