John Paul Phelan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael)
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466.To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment for a detailed breakdown of matters discussed during the first three meetings of the technical working group set up to consider Ireland’s action plan on collective bargaining; and if he will make a statement on the matter.[34382/24]

Emer Higgins (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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The EU Directive on Adequate Minimum Wages requires Member States with a collective bargaining coverage below 80%, such as Ireland, to publish an action plan to promote collective bargaining.

The European Commission Expert Group's Report, released last November, is clear that the content of the action plan is entirely up to Member States, in consultation with the social partners. According to the Report, the action plan should be published by the end of 2025. It is intended that Ireland's action plan would be published ahead of that date.

A technical working group to consider the collective bargaining aspects of the Directive and the content of Ireland's action plan was established this year and has met in February, March and July. The group comprises of DETE officials and representatives of ICTU, SIPTU and Ibec.

The work of the technical working group will be essential in developing the actions contained in Ireland’s action plan. The meetings of the technical group to date have been constructive.

Some of the issues which have been raised by the social partners and have been discussed by the group include:

- capacity building and training for the social partners

- Ireland’ collective bargaining environment and legislative provisions for collective bargaining

- incentivising collective bargaining

- anti-discrimination measures for trade union members

- access of trade unions to workers

It should be noted however that there has been no agreement to date on the issues will be included in Ireland's action plan.