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

I thank the Senator for withdrawing the amendment. I cannot say strongly enough, both in this and the other House, how vehemently I oppose putting reports into legislation, particularly legislation that is not amended thereafter.

Let me reassure the Senator that, arising from what we agreed in the House on foot of what Senator Ruane was trying to do last week, I wrote to the Workplace Relations Commission, WRC, the following morning, and it has agreed to undertake a body of work on the current part-time work statutory code of practice. It replied to me today saying that it will take about six months to complete this body of work. I have made arrangements that when it comes back to me with recommendations, we will look seriously at them with a view to changing, if changes are required.

The officials in my Department consistently look at data. We consistently look at underemployment in this country and at people who are not in employment but are not registered as unemployed. We have our jobless household strategy, our disability strategy and we have an open door. If anybody wants to work, he or she can go into an Intreo office and avail of the services that are there, although he or she may not be on the live register.

What we very much need to do is to look at the Central Statistics Office, CSO, data, look at the people who are underemployed who want to work for a longer period, and ensure they avail of all of the services of the State so that they can get as much employment as they possibly need to have a decent standard of living. There are some people, and I acknowledge that most of them are women, who choose to be employed part-time and I want to make sure we get the balance right with the services that we offer so as not to push these women into making choices that they otherwise do not want to make, or not make them feel stigmatised because they make the choice to stay at home with their children when they are small or when they are not in school.

I am willing to have a look at it and come back to the House. It might even be worthwhile to have a course of hearings by the Joint Committee on Social Protection, and I can certainly ask for that, if the Senators are agreeable to it.