Mark Daly (Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Minister of State for coming to the House and know that he has a busy schedule.

Marie Sherlock (Labour)
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I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Troy, to the House and thank him for coming here today.

My question relates to the status of the review of the Company Law Review Group, CLRG, on the recommendations of the Cahill Duffy report on collective redundancies. What is the Government currently doing with the employment recommendations in the report? I do not need to tell the Minister of State that five years have elapsed since the report landed into his current Department. Obviously the report was a response to the situation that arose with Clerys at the time. We know that with many other companies going into liquidation, and most notably Debenhams last year and Arcadia, and more coming down the tracks we now need to see action by the Government. Last year, we had a lot of commitments and soothing words that the Government was seriously considering the matter.

On 4 November 2020, the two authors of the report, Mr. Kevin Duffy and Ms Nessa Cahill, came before the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Enterprise, Trade and Employment and spoke about what they believed needed to be done to implement the recommendations of their report. In particular, they said that the recommendations in the employment law sphere could be implemented, needed to be implemented and that there was no need to do anything on the company law side. The Government in its wisdom decided to ask the Company Law Review Group what company law measures needed to be undertaken and, almost six months on, we still await the review. At this point in time there is yet another delay and distraction in the much needed implementation of the recommendations in the Cahill Duffy Report.

We are all very aware of a permanent contraction in some areas. We know that there are redundancies coming down the tracks in the retail sector and other sectors for which the Government now needs to be ready. I believe that if we had the report in place we could have saved some of the heartache experienced by the workers at Debenhams and the many days they spent outside day after night trying to fight for what was due to them. In particular, there would have been advanced consultation on collective redundancies, which is recommendation No. 1 of the Cahill Duffy report, the strengthening of the ability of the State to recover payments from the insolvency fund, which is recommendation No. 4, and increasing compensation to the affected workers by recognising the terms of their collective agreement, which is recommendation No. 6.

In short, if the recommendations of the report had been implemented before last March or, indeed, now for the thousands of workers who may find themselves in a similar situation that there is a mechanism for recognising the collectively bargained ex gratiapayments that are inbuilt into their collective agreement, and a mechanism for paying that out via the insolvency fund but claiming it back from what remains of the liquidation process.

I ask the Government to get a move on with the report because we cannot afford any delay. It will be an appalling indictment of the Government if more workers find themselves in a situation where they are left without their fair compensation package arising from a liquidation if the Government has failed to act.

Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Senator for tabling her Commencement matter and giving me an opportunity to update the House on where we are with this important topic. I am aware that she has a strong interest in this area and I share her interest. I am very conscious of the need to introduce increased enhancements to employee rights. That is why there is a clear commitment in the programme for Government to review the current legal provisions surrounding collective redundancies and liquidations of companies to ensure that they effectively protect the rights of workers and do not overly impede enterprise in the conduct of business.The CLRG's report on its review of legal provisions on liquidations and the rights of workers in the context of company law was received by my Department a number of weeks ago. This will be made available publicly on the CLRG's website once full consideration has been given to those recommendations. The second phase of the CLRG's work, concentrating on the splitting of operations and the sale to connected parties following insolvency, has commenced and the CLRG will report on that work in September of this year.

The Minister of State, Deputy English, and I have jointly looked at the legislative provisions that deal with redundancy and insolvency from the point of view of both employment law, which falls under the responsibility of the Minister of State, Deputy English, and company law, which falls under my delegated responsibilities. The recommendations of the Duffy Cahill report have fed into this process, and in developing our approach we met with the social partners on 4 November last year. They made submissions to inform that process, and our policy response was issued to them on 11 May 2021. We are due to meet the social partners tomorrow evening to discuss this matter further.

As part of our response, changes will be brought in under the recently announced small companies rescue package and will provide for the provision of enhanced information on those remedies designed to secure the protection of employees that are already a feature of the existing legal landscape. In parallel, legislative proposals in the area of company law relevant to the protection of workers as creditors have also been adopted. While I appreciate that this is a minor development, work continues at a strong pace on the substantive review of corporate restructuring, as I mentioned earlier, and the CLRG is due to report back in September in that regard. It is our intention to progress this matter as swiftly as possible once the CLRG reports in September.

As for the two proposals we will bring forward on the small companies rescue package, we have given a commitment that that will be done prior to the summer recess of this year. I also wish to inform the Senator that we have decided to move to establish an independent forum that will consider employment law issues into the future with membership to include stakeholders such as employee and employer representatives, as well as employment law and other legal experts. This forum's remit will go well beyond addressing redundancy and insolvency matters and will work along the lines of the CLRG. The intention is that the complementary range of measures will promote the provision of quality information, enhanced participation and transparency, and provide for continued development of employment law, especially with regard to employee rights.

I hope this information is of benefit to the Senator and I thank her for the opportunity to put it on the record of the House.

Marie Sherlock (Labour)
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I thank the Minister of State for the very detailed response. I am shocked. He is telling me the Company Law Review Group has not one but two reviews ongoing, one that is yet to commence or has only recently commenced and will report only in September. Separately, the Department has to start an employment law review. This is not news to the Government. As the Minister of State said, this is in the programme for Government. We have known for five years now that these recommendations need to be implemented. It is simply not good enough that there is a new process followed by another process followed by another process with no outcome. We need outcomes, decisions and clarity for workers. I appreciate that the Minister of State is engaging through the Labour Employer Economic Forum, LEEF, with the Irish Congress of Trade Unions and IBEC, and that is really good, but we are past the time for new processes. The Minister of State knows what he needs to do and the Government needs to get on with it now.

Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail)
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To reiterate, work is well advanced. We met with the key stakeholders, that is, the employers and union representative bodies, last November. The CLRG has already commenced the work and published the first phase of its report.Two of it proposals will be adopted in the next number of weeks when the small business package is brought before the Oireachtas. This legislation will enable us to implement two of these recommendations.

The second phase will report in September, which is only a number of months away, and relates to the complex area of the splitting of assets, which we want to ensure that we get right. I am giving a commitment that the recommendations will be reviewed swiftly when we receive them from the CLRG and any recommendations that need to be implemented or introduced on a legislative basis will be done without delay. The Senator should make no mistake; this matter is receiving the full attention of both the Minister of State, Deputy English, and me and we are determined to ensure that the relevant safeguards are put in place.