Gerard Craughwell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister and rise to support this timely Bill. I thank Senators Bacik and Hayden for introducing it. Like Senator Ó Domhnaill, I hope it will pass through the House as quickly as possible and be enacted before the Houses' dissolution.

Employment has undoubtedly changed in the past 100 years. In the past ten or 20 years, it has become precarious. One can walk into an organisation today and find that some of its employees, who are of the mistaken belief that they are employed by the company on all the terms and conditions that one would expect, are essentially private contractors. Yesterday, I was shocked to see that 65,000 claimants to the Department of Social Protection were casual workers. That is a large number. It is a slight aside from this Bill and is not what the Bill is trying to address, but it is only right and proper that those in the professions - doctors, bricklayers, voiceover artists, photographers, journalists, etc. - have access to all of the protections that one might have when in full-time employment. I congratulate the Labour Party and Senator Bacik on the introduction of this Bill.