Regina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Bill was amended on Committee Stage. This was untested, not scrutinised and not discussed with any of our unions, social partners or employer organisations. The amendment was brought in by Deputy Clare Daly on Committee Stage. It was passed and I lost. The reason it was removed, when I brought an amendment back, was not because I said it would not work and did a little dance and said please do not do that to me. It was because the Labour Relations Commission, LRC, and the Workplace Relations Commission, WRC, came back with advice to say that, as it is currently constituted, it does not mean anything. It means that one can put a sign on the wall that says five hours are available next week. Some 15 people could apply for it and not one of them might get them. Not one of those 15 people could find out why they did not get them. It is meaningless. The only way it becomes meaningful is if one is prescriptive, and in order for it to be prescriptive, one has to tell the employer exactly what one wants, expects, and the desired outcome. That does not do this.

I sound like I am threatening but I am not. However, to do what the Senator wants to do - this is the only reason I am saying it will delay the Bill - in a meaningful way, I will have to engage in public consultation with the social partners, the unions and the employers to ask them what they would accept in legislation, so that we will have a practice that is fruitful and meaningful. The WRC and the Labour Court came back and said that, as it stood, it was unenforceable. How would they deal with the five people who did not get the extra hours on the week it was advertised versus the person who did? By not being prescriptive, they have no way of making sure that they can enforce it.

Right now we are at a crossroads where we are putting an amendment into the legislation that is unenforceable as far as the Labour Court and the WRC are concerned, and not me, as Minister. What I am saying is that if the Senator wants to do this, it needs to be far more prescriptive, and the only way I can be assured that happens is if we engage in consultation with all the people it will affect, from either an employee's or employer's perspective. We need to get it as detailed and as meaningful as it needs to be before we can progress with the legislation.