Catherine Ardagh (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I ask the Leader to call on the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, Deputy Mary Mitchell O'Connor, to attend this House and address us on the absolute mess in industrial relations in this country. The industrial relations situation in Ireland is an absolute shambles and it does not seem to be improving. We have a failed Workplace Relations Act, continuous transport strikes, threatened Garda stoppages and still no sign of the promised public service pay commission that was agreed in the confidence and supply agreement.

A recent survey of industrial relations practitioners conducted by the Employment Law Association of Ireland showed that the majority are extremely unhappy with the new Act. One in every two legal and industrial relations practitioners is dissatisfied with the new system. Three in five believe that the format of the Workplace Relations Commission, WRC, adjudication system is inconsistent. Two in five are dissatisfied with the quality of the adjudicating officers' rulings. One in two had problems with how the WRC processes applications for adjournments and a few other details.Now that the days of the employment appeals tribunal are over, when hearings were held in public and chaired by a legally trained professional, they are now held in private and treated by employers as a dry run, away from the scrutinising eye of the media. Non-legally trained professionals adjudicate in disputes, from which inconsistent decisions stem. Most employers and employees will appeal the decisions of adjudication officers to the Labour Court and there will be a backlog of cases in the Labour Court in the next couple of months. It was envisaged that the current system would be more cost-effective, but it is not. It does not provide value for money for the public and does not give aggrieved employees redress in any form. They are the ones who will ultimately have to bear the cost of high legal fees when matters are appealed to the Labour Court, either by themselves or their employers. I ask the Leader to call on the Minister to address the House today on the ongoing strikes hitting the country, not just the WRC.