Ivana Bacik (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am delighted that the Bill has been passed. I sincerely thank the Minister for her kind comments. It has been a pleasure to work with her and her officials. Her constructive approach has been welcome and positive. I thank her for closely engaging with us on this legislation from the start. I echo Senator Davitt's words about her capacity for hard work and, in particular, her constructive approach to all of these things.

I thank her officials. In particular, I thank Mr. Kieran Grace, Ms Breda Power and Ms Colette Reilly because they have been so good dealing with us all through the process. I thank all of those in the trade union movement who have worked so hard for so long on this legislation. There are too many names to mention but I single out Mr. Séamus Dooley of the NUJ, who cannot be here but who has worked really hard on this legislation. Ms Ethel Buckley, Ms Karan O'Loughlin, Mr. Pádraig Murray and many others have also worked extremely hard. I know other people in ICTU have also actively worked on this Bill.

This is a time of fairly bleak political developments overseas. This week, we have seen bloated progressive politics internationally, and some of us have already acknowledged the situation in this House. This Bill is a positive example of constructive legislative work by the Seanad and between the Government and the Legislature. I hope it is a good example of more to come. Senator Reilly recalled, as a previous Minister, accepting my Private Members' Bill on the prohibition of female genital mutilation. It was another example of the Senators working together to pass a Bill and there have been many more, including work done by former Senator Feargal Quinn.

Today's Bill is a positive example of constructive work done in a collaborative fashion by an active Legislature. This is also a good example of the collective rights of workers being asserted against a neoliberal ideology that was applied over rigidly by an authority working within EU law. We have shown through our work on this Bill, the Government's acceptance of this Bill and through working together on it that other interpretations are possible within EU law. We have also shown that collective rights can and should be asserted, where necessary, to protect vulnerable groups of workers who would otherwise face a huge amount of disadvantage as a result of particularly rigid approaches.I am grateful to colleagues for their support for the Bill and, in particular Senator Gerald Nash, who had an important role in making sure this Bill came through. It is a proud day for the Seanad and a historic day for all of us.