The EU Services Directive will not be implemented unless substantially redrafted, according to Minister of State at the Department of An Taoiseach Tom Kitt. Mr Kitt was speaking at a seminar on the directive organised by Siptu.
He said the Government supported the principle of a single market in services, provided that the concerns of social partners were taken on board.
"We share a multitude of concerns about the proposal. Whether or not it will be possible to meet these concerns and those of the European Parliament, the Commission and the large number of stakeholders remains to be seen," said Mr Kitt.
The directive includes a provision to allow service companies to apply working conditions prevailing in their country of origin to employees working in another member state.
Opening the seminar, Siptu president Jack O'Connor said the directive would provide a licence for gross exploitation while its benefits were limited. "It is also worth noting that a study produced for the European Commission last year by Copenhagen economists suggests the economic value of the country of origin principle element is marginal," he said.
Labour MEP Prionsias de Rossa criticised the position of the internal markets and services commissioner Charlie McCreevy. "The original Lisbon process promised to develop the European economy in this way by integrating social policy as a productive factor. Instead, in recent years we have had a drift to the right, as exemplified by the Thatcherite approach espoused by Commissioner McCreevy and others," Mr de Rossa said.
Fianna Fáil MEP Eoin Ryan said the directive didn't have a "snowball's chance in hell" of being implemented in its original form but was heckled when he tried to defend Charlie McCreevy, who is responsible for piloting the directive through the European Parliament.
Fine Gael MEP Avril Doyle said that her group in the European Parliament - the European People's Party (EPP) - would not support the country of origin principle. The Services Directive could not be implemented without her group's approval, she said, as the EPP is the largest in the parliament .
The services sector accounts for 70 per cent of the European Union's economy and is seen as a critical driver of employment growth.
