Ivana Bacik (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister and commend my colleague, Senator Nash, on bringing forward this initiative and for all his work on the Bill, which has already passed Second Stage in this House. I echo his words and those of Senator Gavan as to how vital this Bill is in addressing the issues of the growing "precariat", in other words, the increasing number of people in very precarious employment relationships who are being referred to as self-employed in a bogus sense. Of course, this Bill should not be seen on its own and, as Senator Nash stated, there have been other initiatives, including our own Competition (Amendment) Act 2017, which was initiated as a Labour Private Members' Bill but passed by the Houses with full support in 2017. We worked very closely and constructively with the Government and officials in getting that legislation through. We delayed different Stages in order to secure an agreed set of amendments and, in general, everybody has been very happy with the final Act. It has addressed a real issue for so many vulnerable workers.

Similarly, Labour initiated the gender pay gap Bill in this House. The Government did not oppose the latter in principle, although it did oppose it because it wanted to introduce its own legislation. At the same time, we have been working with the Government on various aspects of the issue and I am surprised that the Minister seems to be opposing each section of the Bill before us. I am not sure if that will be the case but it seems to be a most peculiar tactic even where the Government does not support the passage of a Bill through Committee Stage. It is certainly not the usual practice for the Government to oppose each section, thereby potentially dividing the House in this case eight times with each of the eight sections of the Bill. That does not seem particularly practical.

I commend Senator Gavan on his much more constructive approach. He has amendments that he wishes to bring forward on behalf of Sinn Féin in order to strengthen the Bill. They are constructive and we are happy to debate them but he is proposing to either not move or withdraw them in the interests of being even more constructive and seeking to ensure that the Bill goes through. We are all in general agreement on the principle, although the Minister is proposing her own legislation to deal with the matter, and Senator Gaven does not propose to divide the House in the context of his amendments. It seems a sensible approach to take with this sort of legislation. I believe I speak for Senator Nash in stating that we would be very happy to engage with the Minister in a constructive manner, possibly delaying the holding or Report Stage so we can work with the Minister and her Department on any amendments they see fit to bring forward and address any concerns they have.

As already stated, opposing each section is an unusual practice. We will have no option but to seek support from across the House for each section of the Bill but it seems unnecessary; if the Government is to oppose the Bill, perhaps it could be opposed at the end of the debate rather than at the end of each section and having a vote on them. That is especially pertinent as we are all in agreement with the very important goal of this Bill.