Dan Boyle (Cork South Central, Green Party)
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Question 295: To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment his views on the reality that the Council of Europe's Committee on Social Rights in its conclusions for 2005 found that Ireland was in breach of implementing the revised European Social Charter. [23956/06]

Tony Killeen (Clare, Fianna Fail)
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The Council of Europe has standard reporting procedures in relation to the revised Social Charter which apply to all Contracting Parties (i.e. those Member States that have signed and ratified the Charter). Ireland signed and ratified the Revised Social Charter on 4 November 2000. The Revised Social Charter has 31 Articles. In preparing Reports, the Department has to consult both internally and with most other Government Departments in relation to updating material on any relevant legislative and/or administrative changes that have taken place which impact on our implementation of the Revised Social Charter. Given the range of issues to be covered and the number of Departments to be consulted, gathering and clarifying up- to-date responses on a wide range of topics can be quite demanding, having regard to the steady growth in other reporting obligations on all Departments.

In light of the substantially increased reporting requirements under the Revised Social Charter — 31 Articles compared with 19 in the original Social Charter from 1961 — the Department undertook to review criticisms of the Irish response made by the European Committee of Social Rights — who examine in detail, individual Member States' Reports on the implementation of the Revised Social Charter — and how implementation might be made more effective in the future. As part of this process, officials of this department had a meeting in Dublin on 4 October 2005 with a Delegation from the Council of Europe, including their Secretariat and members of the European Committee of Social Rights.

At that meeting, the delays in submitting our Second and Third Reports on our implementation of the Revised Social Charter were discussed. It was acknowledged by the Council of Europe delegation that 3 of the Articles in our Second Report had already been submitted to Strasbourg. However, as we had in parallel done some work on our Third Report — which updates Ireland's reporting on the 9 "core" Articles for the period ending 31 December 2004 — the Department agreed with the Council representatives to prioritise the completion of the Third Report, before reverting to the completion of the Second Report.

The reason for this approach is that the Third Report is effectively, an update of our First Report submitted in May 2004 on the 9 core Articles, and it was anticipated that this Report could be completed quickly. In fact, I am happy to say that the Department submitted the completed Third Report last month. This Department will now complete the Second Report on the outstanding 21 Articles as the material involved is received from Departments and Agencies and edited by the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment. Having due regard to other pressing demands, I expect that this process should be completed by mid July. Accordingly, there is no question of information being withheld from the Council of Europe and the Department is determined to eliminate backlogs in reporting developments as soon as possible. If, in effect, Ireland has been remiss in relation to any aspect of the European Social Charter, it has been in relation to some reporting requirements and not in relation to the substance of the Charter.

I consider that the Revised Social Charter is being properly implemented by Ireland, having regard to our national legislation and administrative practices. Any queries raised by the European Committee of Social Rights are, and will continue to be, addressed as part of the Reporting procedures laid down by the Council of Europe.