Martin Heydon (Kildare South, Fine Gael)
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696. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation the status of the work of her Department in relation to zero-hour contracts; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [6069/17]

Pat Breen (Clare, Fine Gael)
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My colleague, Minister Mitchell O’Connor, and I intend to bring forward proposals in this area for consideration by Government. In this respect, work has progressed well on developing a policy response to the University of Limerick (UL) study on zero hour contracts and low hour contracts. I intend to include protections aimed particularly at low-paid, more vulnerable workers. Our proposals will address the issue of employees on low hour contracts who consistently work more hours each week but whose contracts do not reflect the reality of their hours worked. The proposals will also seek to ensure that employees are better informed about the nature of their employment arrangements and their core terms at an early stage in their employment.

The policy response is being informed by the UL study itself as well as the extensive material and practical examples provided by respondents to the public consultation conducted by my Department. My Department is currently engaged in a dialogue process with ICTU and IBEC to secure broad agreement before proposals are finalised. This work is being progressed as expeditiously as possible and is nearing conclusion. The intention is to bring our proposals to Government in Q1 2017.