Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 16 April 2013
560. Deputy Stephen S. Donnelly asked the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation if he will provide details of all material from the Irish delegation to the International Labour Organisation's 2012 annual conference, including minutes of meetings, reports and all information and reports relating to Ireland's compliance with all ILO conventions. [17195/13]
View answerThe 101st Session of the International Labour Conference, 2012 took place from 30th May – 14th June, 2012. The Irish Government sent a tripartite delegation to the Conference comprised of Government delegates and delegates from IBEC and ICTU.
The following Committees took place during the ILC: Committee on the Application of Standards; Elaboration of an autonomous recommendation on the Social Protection Floor (single discussion, standard setting); Committee on Youth Employment (general discussion); A recurrent discussion on the strategic objective of fundamental principles and rights at work.
All reports in relation to each Committee, and the outcomes of the Committees, are available on the ILO’s website www.ILO.org. Specifically the following link: http://www.ilo.org/ilc/ILCSessions/101stSession/lang--en/index.htm.
The Government delegates covered the Committee on Youth Employment and the recurrent discussion on the strategic objective of fundamental principles and rights at work.
They also monitored the difficulties that arose on the Committee on the Application of Standards (CAS). The CAS regularly examines the application of standards in ILO member countries, and points out areas where they can be better applied.
In June, 2012 the CAS, for the first time in the history of the ILO, could not reach agreement on the list of country cases for discussion and examination. The country list is a matter that can only be decided by the Social Partners. In this instance, the Employers had an issue with cases that referred to the right to strike i.e. Convention No. 87 (Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise, 1948) and Convention No. 98 (Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining, 1949). Considerable discussions were held by the ILO office and the Social Partners at that time, but no agreement could be reached to move the stalemate forward during the 2012 ILC. It remains to be seen if there will be a country case list for discussion at this year’s ILC.
During the third week of the Conference, my colleague Minister Sean Sherlock, Minister for Research and Innovation of this Department addressed the plenary session of the Conference.
In relation to Ireland’s reporting obligations, Ireland has ratified 71 Conventions including all fundamental Conventions. Ireland makes annual reports to the ILO in relation to the current position in relation to requested conventions. As at 31st December, 2012, Ireland did not have any outstanding reporting obligations with the ILO. The annual ILO request for 2013 has been received into my Department and officials are currently working on this request.
The most recent Convention adopted in June, 2011 was the Decent Work for Domestic Workers Convention No. 189. I intend to progress the ratification of this Convention both nationally and at EU level during the Irish Presidency.
