Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

As I said earlier, this provision has always involved a right to request. I have certainly never advertised it as anything else. It is a significant change, and we should be cautious not to talk down what is going to be a significant advance in terms of the rights workers have. We must recognise that the provisions here have been strengthened throughout the process. Significant changes were made between the pre-legislative scrutiny phase and the Bill coming before the Dáil, where is was amended further. An important change is the introduction of the code of practice, which will be developed by the Workplace Relations Commission in the context of its experience in this area.

Fundamentally, however, this is about a right to request. That is what is being delivered in the context of the legislation. We have also put in place the ability to review this legislation within a tight timeframe. I do not believe it will happen, but if some of the concerns raised by Senators throughout this process arise, there will be an opportunity to address them by means of the review, which will take place after the legislation has been in operation for two years.This is normally a short timeframe for review, but because of the significance of this legislation, it is appropriate to give it some period of operation while at the same time allow us to make changes or indeed a future Oireachtas to make changes.