Seymour Crawford (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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Question 59: To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment when the employment rights group, announced on 24 May 2005 will be established; when it is due to report; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [18069/05]

Kathleen Lynch (Cork North Central, Labour)
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Question 81: To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment if he has finalised his response to the report of the review group on the employment rights bodies, which he told the House on 20 April 2005 he hoped to publish within the next two to three weeks; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [18015/05]

Tony Killeen (Clare, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 59 and 81 together.

On 24 May, I announced that the Government had agreed to the following programme of action in response to the report and recommendations of the review group on the role and functions of the employment rights bodies, the Labour Court, the Employment Appeals Tribunal and the Labour Relations Commission rights commissioner service, and my subsequent consultations with the various interested parties: the establishment of an employment rights group, ERG, comprising representatives of the Department, the employment rights bodies and the social partners. This group will consider and advise on the operational implications of giving effect to the Government's decisions in this area. A customer focused working group will be established in each of the bodies reviewed, as recommended by the report of the review group.

These working groups will address issues identified by the review group in the context of improving the delivery of service by the individual employment rights bodies. The ERG is to consider how best to simplify and streamline the complaint, appeal and enforcement procedures and documentation across all the various employment rights bodies. The ERG will also examine the extent to which common procedures and a simplified approach to the conduct of hearings-investigations can be adopted across all the bodies, leading to procedural simplification and improved customer service. The ERG will examine the practicality of setting up a single point of contact for the Labour Court, the rights commissioner service and all other services of the Labour Relations Commission and the Employment Appeals Tribunal, not only for information provision, but also for receipt and distribution of requests for service. In this context, the Government has directed that all efforts be made to concentrate the relevant employment rights bodies in a single physical location to optimise synergies, efficiencies and improved customer service delivery.

The Employment Appeals Tribunal, EAT, will continue as a stand-alone body, but one which will have full and part-time members. In addition, all cases which are heard in the EAT on a first instance basis will instead be referred to the rights commissioner service of the Labour Relations Commission in the first instance, thus making the EAT an exclusively appellate body. A programme of work is to be undertaken by the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, in co-operation with the Office of the Attorney General to simplify, harmonise and consolidate the corpus of employment rights legislation. This programme, to be assisted by the ERG, will bring forward proposals for a coherent and consolidated corpus of legislation for consideration by Government. This will not involve changes in statutory employment rights entitlements or affect the adjudicative independence of the employment rights bodies. Future appointments to the position of rights commissioner in the LRC and chair and vice-chairperson in the EAT will be made by way of open competition. In this context, the Government has directed the ERG to consider the job specifications and terms and conditions appropriate to these positions.

The report of the review group and also the report of the independent assessor employed for the consultation phase are available on the website of the Department of Enterprise,Trade and Employment, www.entemp.ie/employment/rights/publications.htm. The first meeting of the employment rights group is to take place on 13 June 2005 and its work should be completed in 18 months.