INTERVIEW:Richard Bruton believes the Coalition is working very well in the face of enormous problems, writes STEPHEN COLLINS
REFORM OF the Sunday overtime regime for the hospitality sector is just one step in the Government’s job creation agenda, according to Minister for Enterprise and Jobs Richard Bruton.
Expressing satisfaction with the outcome of the Government’s deliberations on the issue of joint labour commissions, he said the Coalition had always set itself the twin target of creating a system that protected vulnerable workers while reforming it to ensure it met the needs of a dramatically changed economy.
“The system was designed in the 1940s. It was applied in certain segments; it had 300 different rates; it required record keeping and compliance; it applied specific rules on things like Sunday working where the rest of the economy had moved on.” Bruton said broad provision had been made for Sunday working in general law but the flexibility offered to employers in other sectors was not available to those in the regulated sectors.
“We are now in a position to modernise and reform a system to make it fit for purpose and supportive of new employment opportunities and also that it still has statutory protection for people in terms of basic rates, overtime rates, in sectors where people are poorly organised.”
He said the Government would try and meet the concerns about the transition from one set of laws to another with a code of practice to guide employers in different sectors and mechanisms for trade unions to take cases on behalf of workers if they felt it was not observed.
“I think we have struck a good balance and there is significant scope for flexibility in sectors which are important to the economy. These sectors have suffered over 80 per cent of the job losses in the past 12 months.
“They are also the sectors that younger and lower-skilled people look to for job opportunities, so there is a better chance of short- term gains in these sectors.”
The changes were only one of a range necessary to find an economy that had lost its way.
“If we are to get back to job creation as a top priority, we have to fix a lot of things. We have to fix access to credit, we have to get government regulating and being more effective in the way we do business, we have to fix the lack of competition in a lot of sheltered sectors of the economy.”
By the end of next month, moves would be made to deal with the issue of legal fees and the creation of more competition in the medical profession.
Bruton said the National Competitiveness Council had found that while fees for accountants and architects were going down, legal fees had continued to rise.
“So adjustments that are happening in other areas are not happening in the legal area. There is a need for change and the Government is committed to the deadline.” On the medical profession, he said the issue was to remove barriers to entry and get doctors and dentists to display their prices.
The Minister said the first wave of things done by the Government related to the sheltered sectors of the economy but there was a need for another wave.
“One of the ambitions I have is to continually refresh the jobs agenda for government so that we don’t lose momentum. We need to be looking over the next hill and that is what I see as our department’s role.”
He said the question of access to finance was one of the big gaps in the system. During the boom, banks lost the ability to deal with small and medium enterprises and they no longer seemed to have the skills to base judgments about lending on cash flow.
“There are big gaps in the system and that is why the partial loan guarantee introduced by the Government is important. Our job here is to continually be the warble fly, creating the momentum and keeping the jobs agenda fresh.”
Employment was not the only issue for him – broadband, electricity costs, research and regulatory systems were also part of the equation, as well as access to finance.
Bruton maintained that the Coalition was working very well in the face of enormous problems.
“What does characterise it is a sense of urgency. What is important about this Government is that we are creating momentum. The whole Government has that sense that this is a unique time and that the luxury of a long debate about the issues is not there. We have to reach decisions and move on.”
He said Fine Gael and Labour together were capable of a broad approach to the whole range of issues that needed to be tackled to get the economy moving.
“We are jumping together. This is not a series of different zero sum battles fought in different areas of the battlefield. It is a campaign across all fronts.”