Gerard Craughwell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I congratulate the Financial Services Union and the University of Limerick on an excellent piece of research into technology, work and skills on the impact of technology on employees. They held a seminar across the road on the right to disconnect. It is really important for workers here. More and more workers are expected to be available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Emails fly to workers when they are on holiday. The permanent civil servants who service this House work extremely hard and are available for as long as we choose to sit, which is something that we should remember.

I am deeply concerned about the way in which the workforce in this country is developing, particularly in the professional areas of accounting and legal where people are expected to work around the clock. Young people entering accountancy work until midnight and are expected to be back in at 8 a.m. the following day in order to meet clients and put reports out on time. The large practices which have young people working for them need to understand that productivity falls through the floor when people work excessive hours. I do not care what training is involved. We have seen this in the medical profession over the years whereby young doctors have been expected to work 100 hours a week and so on.This is totally unacceptable and it needs to be tackled. The Irish Congress of Trade Unions says it wants legislation for the right to disconnect. Such legislation must, however, be based on the right to collective bargaining within the organisation. One of the great shames in this country is that trade unionism has been sidelined in many organisations and is sometimes deemed to be the big bad brother.

I cannot let the day go without mentioning those who service our needs when it comes to being elected to this House. I first spoke about the pay and conditions of county councillors in 2014. It is now 2019 and nothing has changed. They are still being treated in an appalling way and I know every Member wants to see change, and quickly. I ask the Leader to do whatever he can to get the Moorhead report out. I know he is as interested in this as I am and I will not take lead on this any more.