Ivana Bacik (Independent) | Oireachtas source

-----and improve the process that is to be brought about through the Bill. There has been no suggestion from the Department that this type of meeting outside of the Chamber or constructive engagement with officials would be possible. I say this as somebody who has brought forward Private Members' Bills and seen them brought into law, generally after this type of constructive engagement with a view to seeking compromise. I agreed to amendments to my Private Members' Bills, for example, the Competition (Amendment) Bill that became an Act of 2017. It introduced certain rights for freelance workers, including the right to engage in collective bargaining to determine minimum pay rates. That Bill was initially opposed by the Government and reluctantly supported in principle. I, Senator Nash and officials at the Department of Business, Enterprise and Innovation worked together with a view to achieving compromise. This is the type of approach that would generally be the case where extensive amendments have been tabled to a Bill or where extensive opposition is expressed to procedures in legislation. We should see this type of compromise approach being adopted.

Amendment 91g is an eminently suitable amendment for adoption, at least in principle, by the Government with a discussion on where it could be improved or how the point it is making could be addressed so we can see an improvement to the mechanisms provided for in the Bill. Otherwise, the problem is we are just debating these amendments and, ultimately, we will be left with a procedure that, as I have said, will be unwieldy and cumbersome to operate and will not have any merit in terms of increased transparency of or rationality for the basis of the recommendations that the commission will be making.