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

The purpose of this section of the Bill is to assist Irish employees in companies that are owned by organisations outside of Ireland. In this case, we are inserting a provision into the law so that the UK is included. Current practice means that when an organisation with Irish employees gets into trouble in Ireland, the State looks after the payment of redundancy for those Irish employees through the insolvency Act. Any company from an EU member state, including a British, French or German company, is covered. As things stand, companies from the UK will not be covered after 29 March. Therefore, we are providing in this legislation for the UK to be treated as a third country and to be included in this practice. As the Senator knows, there are many Scotland, Northern Irish, Welsh and English companies in Ireland. They give great employment to Irish citizens. If - God forbid - anything should happen after 29 March, we will continue to look after those Irish citizens on the basis of the contributions that those companies would have made to the State through their Irish citizens. The exact provisions we have today under the European convention will apply to the UK after 29 March under this legislation. The situations described by the Senator were not covered by legislation that relates specifically to companies outside the jurisdiction of Ireland.