Niall Collins (Limerick County, Fianna Fail)
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93. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation if her attention has been drawn to information technology issues associated with the WRC's online complaints system; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [29997/16]

Mary Mitchell O'Connor (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
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The Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) was established on 1 October 2015 under the Workplace Relations Act 2015 and has responsibility for information provision, workplace advice, mediation, conciliation, adjudication, inspection and enforcement in relation to employment rights, equality and equal status matters and industrial relations.

The WRC assumed the roles and functions previously carried out by the Labour Relations Commission (LRC), Rights Commissioner Service (RCS), Equality Tribunal (ET), the National Employment Rights Authority (NERA) and the first instance (Complaints and Referrals) functions of the Employment Appeals Tribunal (EAT). A single contact portal utilising an online complaint form was introduced as part of the reform project. This reduced the large number of manual complaint forms that had been in existence for each of the previous bodies. I am informed by the WRC that 83% of complaint applications were made between 1 October 2015 and 30 September 2016 using the online e-Complaint facility.

I am aware, that in a recent survey, just under 50% approximately of employment law practitioners, who responded to the survey, indicated that the level of detail provided by complainants through the WRC Online Complaint Form is not sufficiently comprehensive.

The WRC is continuing to encourage complainants and stakeholder groups to provide more detail when making the complaint, in order to provide the Adjudicator with the relevant information in advance of the hearing and to facilitate a shorter hearing.