Gerald Nash (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State, Deputy Kehoe, for his kind remarks about the track record of the previous Government and the work that I did with officials in the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation to try to transform the industrial relations landscape in this country. We made some important improvements to the suite of employment law protections in this State at the most difficult of times. I am always intrigued by the charge from members of Sinn Féin and other parties that the Labour Party did not do enough to protect the interests of working people in this country over the last few years while all of the evidence suggests otherwise. I prefer to listen to the remarks of the International Labour Organisation and the European Trade Union Confederation because they know what they are talking about. The Labour Party in Government, supported by Fine Gael, in what was the most difficult of circumstances for our country in the context of the deepest recession ever experienced by this State and a troika programme and when other countries across the globe were hollowing out employment protections, introduced robust new collective bargaining laws, reintroduced registered employment agreements, employment regulation orders and joint labour committee systems and established the Low Pay Commission and twice increased the national minimum wage. The Greek Government is looking to the reforms introduced by the Labour Party with a view to replicating them in Greece. It was me and not members of Sinn Féin that they invited over recently to discuss with them how they could do that.