Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance)
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145. To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment his plans for future legislation that will protect workers in situations of redundancy and insolvency in which they have agreements for enhanced redundancy arrangements with their employer; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [43820/20]

Mick Barry (Cork North Central, Solidarity)
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178. To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment if he will report on consultations he has had with the trade union movement on issues surrounding workers’ rights in company liquidation situations; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [43554/20]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 145 and 178 together.

The Government has committed in the Programme for Government to review whether the current legal provisions surrounding collective redundancies and the liquidation of companies effectively protect the rights of workers.

I have asked the Company Law Review Group to undertake an expedited review of this commitment as it relates to company law, to be completed before the end of the year.

Recommendations of the Duffy-Cahill report and also the Company Law Review Group 2017 Report on Protection of Employees & Unsecured Creditors which have not been implemented will be revisited.

When this work concludes, the Government will be ready to act and propose legislation, where this can achieve improvements.

Ministers of State Damien English and Robert Troy jointly met with employer and union representative bodies on the 4th of November to begin a discussion on the various legislative provisions that deal with redundancy and insolvency from both a company law and employment law perspective.

I am informed it was a positive and constructive meeting with the stakeholders, where the discussion focused on identifying whether there are gaps or weaknesses in either body of legislation.

I understand that consultations and discussions are ongoing.