Ivana Bacik (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State, Senator Casey and other Senators for engaging on this matter. I acknowledge Senator Casey's good faith and bona fides in respect of it.I did not wish to suggest that workers' rights are not protected in primary legislation. I am very well aware of the wide range of primary legislation that is protective of workers' rights, and we can be proud of that. However, there is an anomaly where there is no protection of the right to collective bargaining, as Senator Gavan said, which is what we seek to address in this limited amendment, which I will press. We have had a good engagement on the matter. It has been constructive and I thank the Minister of State in particular for that.

I wish to raise another matter, namely, that of proprietary directors, which I referred to prior to the break in the context of section 2. I wish to correct the record, if I may. I understand from Deputy Howlin that the Minister has acknowledged that there is a difficulty for proprietary directors who will, it appears, be excluded from the employment wage subsidy scheme, EWSS, under the new section 28B despite being covered under the temporary wage subsidy scheme, TWSS. I understand the Minister for Finance has acknowledged this issue and that he will seek an administrative resolution of it. I did not have the chance to put this on the record earlier but I have consulted since.

The amendment makes an important point we seek to raise. It is part of the approach we are taking with this legislation that we believe more conditionality could have been put into it, that it could have been a way to ensure State leverage to build back better, to build back a better society and ensure that we have a more robust base for the protection of public services in particular into the future, and the protection of workers' rights and collective bargaining rights. I will press the amendment on that basis.