Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank both Senators, and Senator Seery Kearney in particular for making the case again. The Bill will assist people in coming forward. We have to recognise that it is okay to pursue your rights. It is not something that should be hidden away. Employers should see it as a positive. If, in the future, an employer reacts negatively to employees pursuing their rights, perhaps those employees might not want to work with that employer. You have to look at it that way as well. Again, the tone of the debate over these couple of days might give some employees the impression that they should not bring their cases forward. To be clear, any employee who has a grievance should engage with our industrial relations team. The WRC is there and does excellent work. Employees should engage with it. Again, if people do not want their cases heard publicly, they can make their case to an adjudication officer, who has the discretion to decide for it not to be heard in public. If, at that point, people still have concerns or fears, they can always pull back. However, they should not choose not to engage in the first place because of certain impressions people might get from this debate. I hope they do not because this law is here to protect employees and to encourage them to come forward and pursue their rights. We can adjudicate on that. The review should pick up on any major concerns.