Ivana Bacik (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for his clear response and for his indication that he intends to have the regulations in place by the end of 2021. That is very welcome. As I have said, there is immense concern, despite the use of the phrase "as soon as is reasonably practicable", that there have been many delays since May 2017 when we introduced our Labour Party Bill. We want to ensure more clarity as to when the regulations will come into force. This is not just coming from Opposition Senators; it is coming from many other stakeholders as well. I refer to SIPTU. It has provided me and others with helpful briefings on its view of the Bill. One of the points SIPTU made is that despite the fact that the introduction of this legislation has been flagged for several years, there has been no concrete indication of when the law will begin to have an effect. It is simply an enabling piece of legislation and there is no urgent timeline provided. The Minister’s response and indication that regulation will be in place by the end of 2021 has answered that concern for many of us. Thus, we might anticipate seeing those regulations in force by the end of 2021. The Minister might clarify this. In other words, we will know then exactly how the legislation will have effect once the regulations are published and even before they take effect in December of this year. The Minister might clarify that point. I thank him for his full response.