Marie Sherlock (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I will speak on amendment No. 13. We welcome that there is provision in the Bill that the board would include the appointment of a person who, in the opinion of the Minister, has knowledge or experience in matters relating to the interest of employees and that there will be representation of employees or representing the interests of employees.

The Minister will be aware of the pre-legislative recommendation which includes explicit representation of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions on the board.Should it really fall to the Government of the day to decide who represents workers or should it fall to workers themselves? The Irish Congress of Trade Unions, ICTU, has a very clear mandate and it is very clearly the representative of workers in this country. While it will always fall to the Minister to appoint the individual, I take the very strong view that it should come on the back of proposals from the Irish Congress of Trade Unions to the Minister and to then let the Minister decide as opposed to perhaps in a future Government the Minister deciding that some random person speaks on behalf of workers. That to me jars with the relationship and the process that has evolved in recent years with theLabour Employer Economic Forum, LEEF, process. We hear Ministers repeatedly tell us about the good working relationship with thosein theLEEF, which is led by the Government, IBEC and the Irish Congress of Trade Unions. I fail to understand why the Minister cannot explicitly reference trade unions as being the representatives of workers in this legislation. There is a fear that in future years we may see the Minister of the day deciding some random person is the person appointed to speak on behalf of workers. That would not be good enough. I do not believe it is the intent behind what the Minister wants in terms of the representation on the board. I ask her to get the design right now rather than having to fix it further down the line.