Dan Boyle (Cork South Central, Green Party)
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Question 365: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Health and Children the Government policy regarding agencies which receive State funding through the Health Service Executive that do not accept decisions of the rights commissioners, the Labour Relations Commission or the Labour Court. [1368/06]

Mary Harney (Dublin Mid West, Progressive Democrats)
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The system of industrial relations in Ireland is essentially voluntary in nature. The State has established a number of institutions to assist in the resolution of trade disputes between employers and workers, comprising the Labour Relations Commission, the rights commissioner service and the Labour Court.

The Labour Relations Commission's conciliation service is a voluntary mediation process. In this process, a professional mediator assists employers and employees to resolve disputes when their own efforts to do so have not succeeded. The process can be described as a facilitated search for agreement between parties in dispute. Where the process ends in continuing disagreement the parties have the option of referring the dispute to the Labour Court for a recommendation.

Rights commissioners investigate trade disputes referred by individuals or small groups of workers. Having carried out an investigation, a rights commissioner issues a recommendation, which is not binding on the parties involved, giving his or her opinion on the merits of the dispute. A party to a dispute under the Industrial Relations Acts may appeal against a rights commissioner's recommendation to the Labour Court. The decision of the court on such appeals is binding on the parties to the dispute.

The Labour Court conducts hearings on trade disputes and then issues recommendations setting out its opinion on the dispute and the terms on which it should be settled. In accordance with the voluntarist nature of the industrial relations machinery in this country, the Labour Court cannot compel a company to comply with its recommendations. As the Labour Court is a court of last resort in the industrial relations process, it is expected that the parties come to the process in good faith and consequently are prepared to accept the outcome of the process, that is, the Labour Court recommendation.

Section 20(1) of the Industrial Relations Act 1969 provides a means whereby a case can be brought directly to the Labour Court without having been previously heard by a rights commissioner. To refer a case to the Labour Court under this section, however, the party or parties referring the case must agree in advance that they will accept the recommendation of the Labour Court.

Ultimately, responsibility for the settlement of a trade dispute rests with the parties to the dispute. The law on industrial relations disputes does not seek to impose a solution on the parties to a dispute but to assist them in arriving at a solution.