David Cullinane (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I strongly disagree with the previous speaker who missed the point as to why Bill was brought forward in the first place. It is not over-prescriptive. I could argue that in many areas it is not prescriptive enough because of the issues we discussed earlier with regard to the Constitution. The reason we have the Bill is to restore the REAs, because some unscrupulous employers made an attempt to dismantle the entire industrial relations architecture in the State. We saw it with the JLCs, the REAs and the employment regulation orders. If we did not have these mechanisms and collective agreements we would have had many more industrial relations disputes and this is a fact. These agreements are between employers and employees. It is much better in sectors where employers and employees come together to agree decent pay rates for workers and register them. Everybody signs up to it and it negates what potentially would happen in their absence, which is a dog eat dog type of approach. It would be a race to the bottom and the more unscrupulous employers would win. Everybody is a winner when we have these types of collective agreements, which is why they are in place. The problem I have with the Bill is that the collective bargaining provisions do not go far enough, despite the fact it is a step in the right direction. There is no doubt there was a clear attempt by some people to dismantle the entire industrial relations architecture of the State. My only regret is the Government took so long to bring this forward as it is almost four years into its term of office. It is here, it is a step forward and it is being introduced for the right reason. In the absence of this, it would be much worse for everybody, not only the workers but also decent employers who want to pay decent rates of pay.