Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Senator for tabling her Commencement matter and giving me an opportunity to update the House on where we are with this important topic. I am aware that she has a strong interest in this area and I share her interest. I am very conscious of the need to introduce increased enhancements to employee rights. That is why there is a clear commitment in the programme for Government to review the current legal provisions surrounding collective redundancies and liquidations of companies to ensure that they effectively protect the rights of workers and do not overly impede enterprise in the conduct of business.The CLRG's report on its review of legal provisions on liquidations and the rights of workers in the context of company law was received by my Department a number of weeks ago. This will be made available publicly on the CLRG's website once full consideration has been given to those recommendations. The second phase of the CLRG's work, concentrating on the splitting of operations and the sale to connected parties following insolvency, has commenced and the CLRG will report on that work in September of this year.

The Minister of State, Deputy English, and I have jointly looked at the legislative provisions that deal with redundancy and insolvency from the point of view of both employment law, which falls under the responsibility of the Minister of State, Deputy English, and company law, which falls under my delegated responsibilities. The recommendations of the Duffy Cahill report have fed into this process, and in developing our approach we met with the social partners on 4 November last year. They made submissions to inform that process, and our policy response was issued to them on 11 May 2021. We are due to meet the social partners tomorrow evening to discuss this matter further.

As part of our response, changes will be brought in under the recently announced small companies rescue package and will provide for the provision of enhanced information on those remedies designed to secure the protection of employees that are already a feature of the existing legal landscape. In parallel, legislative proposals in the area of company law relevant to the protection of workers as creditors have also been adopted. While I appreciate that this is a minor development, work continues at a strong pace on the substantive review of corporate restructuring, as I mentioned earlier, and the CLRG is due to report back in September in that regard. It is our intention to progress this matter as swiftly as possible once the CLRG reports in September.

As for the two proposals we will bring forward on the small companies rescue package, we have given a commitment that that will be done prior to the summer recess of this year. I also wish to inform the Senator that we have decided to move to establish an independent forum that will consider employment law issues into the future with membership to include stakeholders such as employee and employer representatives, as well as employment law and other legal experts. This forum's remit will go well beyond addressing redundancy and insolvency matters and will work along the lines of the CLRG. The intention is that the complementary range of measures will promote the provision of quality information, enhanced participation and transparency, and provide for continued development of employment law, especially with regard to employee rights.

I hope this information is of benefit to the Senator and I thank her for the opportunity to put it on the record of the House.