Alan Kelly (Tipperary, Labour)
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903. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation the timeline for the introduction of legislation to implement the recommendations of the University of Limerick report to the Government - A Study on the Prevalence of Zero Hours Contracts among Irish Employers and their Impact on Employees and the Cahill-Duffy expert examination and review of laws on the protection of employee interests when assets are separated from the operating entity and commissioned following the treatment of workers (details supplied) in June 2015; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [22721/16]

Pat Breen (Clare, Fine Gael)
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The Programme for Government contains a commitment to tackle the problems caused by the increased casualization of work and to strengthen regulation of precarious work.

I am committed to bringing forward an appropriate policy response to the University of Limerick (UL) study on Zero Hour Contracts and Low Hour Contracts report for consideration by Government later this year.

The policy response will be informed by the UL study itself and also the extensive material and practical examples provided by respondents to the public consultation conducted by my Department. In this respect some 48 submissions were received which contained a broad range of views for and against the findings and recommendations made by UL. In developing a policy response, my overriding concern is to find balanced and workable solutions to the issues of insecure, low hours work, with a particular focus on low paid vulnerable workers.

The Duffy Cahill report was commissioned as part of the Government’s response to the closure of Clerys last year. The report provides a comprehensive analysis of the relevant provisions of employment law and company law. It makes a number of proposals for reform of the law, which are primarily concerned with amendments to employment law. My Department conducted a Public Consultation on the report following its publication on 26 April. The submissions received in response to the consultation are important in terms of assessing how the suggested reforms could operate in practice and in identifying any unintended consequences. They will inform the response to the report which will be brought forward for consideration by Government.