Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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109. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation if he will provide, in tabular form, the number of Labour Court adjudications issued in each year from 2009 to 2014; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [24305/15]

Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)
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The Labour Court is an independent statutory body under the aegis of my Department. The Court’s statutory mandate is to provide a fair, independent and cost effective means of resolving workplace related disputes. The Labour Court investigates trade disputes between workers and employers under the Industrial Relations Acts 1946 to 2012. It also hears appeals from the decisions of the Equality Tribunal under the Employment Equality Acts 1998 to 2011 and appeals from decisions of Rights Commissioners under the following statutes:

- Organisation of Working Time Act 1997

- National Minimum Wage Act 2000

- Protection of Employees (Part-Time Work) Act 2001

- Protections of Employees (Fixed-Term Work) Act 2003

- Section 55M(11) of the Health Act 2004

- Safety Health and Welfare at Work Act 2005

- Employees (Provision of Information and Consultation) Act 2006

- Protection of Employee (Temporary Agency Work) Act 2012

- European Communities (Road Transport) (Organisation of Working Time of Persons Performing Road Transport Activities) Regulations 2012.

Details of the number of adjudications (i.e. recommendations, determinations, decisions etc.) issued by the Labour Court during the period 2009 to 2014 are set out in the following table.

The reduction in the number of adjudications issued in recent years reflects the industrial relations climate generally in terms of the reduction in the number of Industrial Relations referrals received by the Court, as well as the reduction in complaints relating to breaches of Registered Employment Agreements arising from the 2013 Supreme Court decision in the case of McGowan v The Labour Court and ors.

The Workplace Relation Act 2015 was signed into law on the 20 May 2015 and will be commenced on 1 October 2015. Under the provisions of the 2015 Act, the Labour Court will be retained as a stand-alone statutory body and will be the single appellate body to deal with all appeals from the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC). The Labour Court will continue to deliver all of its existing services (other than the small number of first instance functions transferring to the WRC) in addition to taking on the appellate functions of the Employment Appeals Tribunal.