Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

We are providing legislation that will codify our law in a way that it will be much more effective and much more enforceable. I am not saying this is the last word on employment law. We will shortly introduce legislation to deal with the Low Pay Commission and, as the Senator knows, legislation to deal with collective bargaining. We have already introduced legislation to deal with temporary agency workers. We will introduce legislation to restore the registered employment agreements. Last year, we introduced legislation to deal with joint labour committees. We are continually evolving labour legislation.

To propose an ineffective amendment and say I should change a raft of law, when that is not the purpose of this Bill, is unfair. We will continue to improve our labour law and that will be reflected in current practices, just as in the past. We have introduced several Bills which have improved employees' rights and we plan further ones.