Dick Spring
Question:46 Mr. Spring asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment her legislative priorities for the remainder of the lifetime of the 28th Dáil; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [3345/02]
Other Questions. - Legislative Programme.
I have a substantial programme of legislation reflecting the broad spectrum of my departmental responsibilities which I propose to progress in the coming months with the continuing co-operation of the Houses and the office of the parliamentary counsel to the Government. A key priority is enactment of the Competition Bill introduced in the Seanad in December 2001. The purpose of the Bill is to consolidate and modernise the existing enactments relating to competition and mergers. The Bill will introduce significant changes arising mainly from the work of the competition and mergers review group, but also changes which take account of other developments such as the proposed alterations to the implementation of EU competition law in the member states.
The Whistleblowers Protection Bill was introduced in the Dáil as a Private Members' Bill by Deputy Rabbitte. The purpose of the Bill is to provide protection from civil liability to employees who make certain disclosures "reasonably and in good faith" in relation to the conduct of the business affairs of their employers. The Bill is with the office of the parliamentary counsel with a view to progressing work on a substantial number of amendments as approved by Government. Once the amendments are received from the office of the parliamentary counsel, I will seek Dáil time to proceed with Committee Stage of the Bill.
The Patents (Amendment) Bill was published in December 1999. Its main purpose is to bring the Patents Act, 1992, into line with the WTO agreement on trade related aspects of intellectual property rights. Second Stage of the Bill was completed on 16 November 2000. I hope to have certain amendments approved by the Government and drafted by the parliamentary counsel to enable the Bill to proceed to Committee Stage.
The Government has approved draft heads of the Industrial and Provident Societies (Amendment) Bill, which is with the office of the parliamentary counsel for drafting. The main purpose of the proposed Bill is to facilitate structural change in the food industry through relaxing the majority voting requirements for the amalgamation of co-operatives.
In December 2001 the Government approved the drafting of the Companies (Amendment) (Audit) Bill. This Bill will give effect to the recommendations of the review group on auditing. It will cover the establishment of the Irish auditing and accountancy supervisory authority, measures to strengthen the regulation of auditors, and application of the EU Council regulation on insolvency. This morning the Government approved the drafting of the Late Payment in Commercial Transactions Bill which will implement the EU directive, the key impact of which is to extend prompt payment legislation from the public sector to all sectors of the economy.
I will shortly bring draft heads to Government in relation to two further Bills: the Work Permits Bill, which will provide a clear statutory basis for the issuing of employment permits and the Industrial Development (Science Foundation Ireland) Bill, which will establish the foundation as a separate legal entity. I will also be progressing a comprehensive programme of secondary legislation, including the transposition of EU directives, over the coming months.
With such a heavy schedule of legislation, I do not expect the Minister will have time to dash to Manorhamilton or anywhere else.
She will certainly not be travelling by car.
Given this very onerous workload, perhaps the Minister intends leaving a heavy legislative chore to this side of the House. Does she consider helpful the stance taken by a Member on the Government backbenches on matters which could be regarded as relevant to the Work Permits Bill? She supplied work permits to a large number of workers in the economy at a time when it was considered they were needed. They have now been subjected to a tirade of abuse for blatantly opportunistic political reasons by Deputy Noel O'Flynn.
The Deputy should not lose sight of the substance of the question.
The Work Permits Bill is a priority of the Minister and I am asking her whether she considers the outburst by Deputy O'Flynn, which he has repeated on several occasions, helpful to the objectives she is trying to achieve in the Bill.
I have to fly from time to time because I have such a heavy work schedule.
I did not state otherwise.
I am aware of that. I will confine my response to the Deputy's point to making a general comment. In the context of the forthcoming general election, for which the campaign is under way, I hope no one will try to win votes at the expense of vulnerable groups in society, whoever they might be.
There must be consequences for those who do.
I hope there are. Human rights are universal which means that people are entitled to respect regardless of colour, creed or gender. There are many thousands of foreign workers here, some of whom have been subject to dreadful abuse. I have met them and they did not come here as asylum seekers or economic refugees, but at the invitation of companies and the Government. We need these people, many of whom are highly skilled and talented. I heard the comments made by certain individuals in the Cork North Central constituency on a television programme the other evening. It is a great pity that, as a society, we sometimes find it difficult to deal with difference. However, the vast majority of candidates have been reasonable on these matters. I hope this continues.
On the same issue, would the Minister agree with the desirability of ensuring that all candidates on the Government side of the House would join in the signing of a pledge that certain—
Deputy Flanagan, I do not know how you are relating this to the substance of the question.
—stances will be undertaken.
It is ironic to see this question in the name of Deputy Spring, a man who has already indicated his desire to occupy the Minister's seat. Maybe this is a surreptitious way of getting a sneak preview of what is on the desk.
It is a wonder he is not here himself.
Too busy ensuring his re-election.
On the Competition Bill we, on this side of the House, will facilitate the early passage of the legislation and look forward to having it in this House at the earliest opportunity. We hope there will not be any efforts on the part of the Government to stymie debate on this issue by way of guillotines. We hope, particularly on Committee Stage, sufficient time will be made available for the Tánaiste and her officials to be present. In respect of the remainder of the lifetime of the 28th Dáil, I refer to one item, reform of the redundancy Acts. The Taoiseach referred to this early today. Does the Tánaiste intend to bring forward reforming legislation in that area between now and the end of the current session?
Is the Tánaiste giving an undertaking to the House that it is her intention that the Whistleblowers Protection Bill will be enacted during the lifetime of the present Government?
On the Competition Bill, I very much welcome what Deputy Flanagan said. It would not be my intention to have any guillotines. There is support for the principles in this Bill on both sides of the House. Everybody supports competition and I will certainly have a very open mind to accepting amendments, as I have had on other Bills.
For Deputy Flanagan's benefit, the question in the name of Deputy Spring was nominated by Deputy Rabbitte. I am privileged to have this kind of special information.
I take it the nomination does not go further than that.
I was interested in the question myself.
It is the intention, if possible, that the Whistleblowers Protection Bill will be enacted. I have just spoken to the Minister of State, Deputy Tom Kitt, who has handled this to date. We are awaiting clearance of the amendments by the Parliamentary Counsel's office and we hope to have them very quickly.