Emer Currie (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I was going to make the point the Minister of State just made, which is that we want to protect jobs in small businesses and micro companies.A point I have heard my colleague, Senator Garvey, make is that many of these employers work side by side with their employees all the time. During the Covid pandemic especially there has been a real sense that we are all in it together. There is very little difference day to day in the work all these employees are doing together to keep their companies and businesses alive. We talk about employers and employees but sometimes there is not that much of a distinction between them, and a lot of the time the employers work all around the clock to keep their businesses going.

I thank the Minister of State for his reassurance. I highlight again that a high-level working group has been established to look at collective bargaining and industrial relations.