Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for outlining the provisions of the Bill and the officials for all the work that went into it. We do not see a lot of what goes on behind the scenes, but we know that a huge amount of work has to go into getting to this stage. I am also conscious of the consultation.

This Bill is largely technical in nature. We look forward to engaging with it as it makes its way through the House. I will keep my opening remarks brief. I am minded by the pre-legislative scrutiny that was conducted by the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Enterprise, Trade and Employment. We had no particular observations to make because this is largely a technical Bill. I understand this is a priority piece of work for the Department, which can be assured that we will work with the committee and the Department to ensure there are no unnecessary delays, while also facilitating a full and robust discussion of the Bill, its provisions and anything that may arise in the course of our deliberations. Having said all that, there are some small issues to which I want to make reference and I hope we will have a chance to consider them further during the passage of this Bill.

It is understandable that this legislation is required to replace some of the temporary Covid accommodations. These accommodations were necessary. They were put in place at a time at which we all had to stay apart, but we obviously had to fulfil certain obligations. It is noticeable that the changes enforced on shareholder and other meetings, that is, that they be virtual, has been recognised for the benefit it gives to board members and shareholders. As such, it is not being fully rolled back. Rather, it looks as though some of those benefits are being retained. It is unfortunate that while the benefits of modern technology in enabling remote meetings and improving access are being welcomed in the boardroom and shareholder meetings, they are not being retained for ordinary workers, in the main. As has been seen recently at the Workplace Relations Commission, WRC, the Government's much-lauded right to request remote working does little to retain the many benefits that workers have from remote working. It will not be lost on any worker who has been forced from remote working back into the office that in our discussion today we are saying on the one hand it is very important that things can be done remotely, and that everything almost can be done remotely, but the Government is also saying to workers that it will not protect their right to work remotely.

While the provisions in this Bill are to be welcomed, we need to ensure the ability to move to virtual meetings does not remove a layer of corporate accountability. The ability of ordinary shareholders to attend the AGM and put their view was hugely important in the past, and we should ensure that virtual meetings are not a method to evade this accountability. That is something I look forward to having a discussion about. I fully appreciate it is easy to say it but it be a little bit harder to legislate for it. It is worthy of consideration, however. During the banking crisis, the ability of ordinary shareholders to attend AGMs and EGMs was very visible. The banks and other public companies were held to account in a very public way, and I do not think we should facilitate anyone avoiding that. I am not suggesting that anyone is necessarily looking to avoid it, but we need to be aware of it.

We also need to consider the low levels of digitalisation, which is especially true for our SME sector. We had a hearing in July at the enterprise, trade and employment committee and I want to thank Jean Carberry of the Department, who gave us some really useful information relating to the digital economy and society index. We know that only 66% of SMEs have a basic level of digital intensity. When we look at the various indices, there is definite scope for improving on this figure. A total of 37 businesses with more than ten workers are using big data. Again, there is huge scope there for improvement. More than half are using the cloud, but only 8% are using AI. This is something in which the committee has taken a particular interest in terms of digitisation. There is no reason that Ireland cannot become an international economic digital leader, and indeed that will facilitate some of what we are considering here in this Bill.

We need to see greater emphasis on the upskilling in digitisation within the SME sector. I put on the record now, although I believe it is on the record already, that we should be using the National Training Fund to drive this, set ambitious targets and achieve them. There is no sense in changing the law to facilitate more online and digital work if the people who were expecting to do it do not have the skills or the equipment that will be necessary to make it happen.

The briefing note I have states that the SME test confirms that no additional regulatory or cost burden will be imposed on SMEs by the provisions of the Bill and that, rather, the Bill, once enacted, should see enterprises avail of a more modern and flexible way of doing business, will aid them in their effort to decrease carbon emissions, provide greater flexibility in how the business conducts its business through the introduction of virtual meetings, and reduce the cost for small and micro-companies through amendment of the audit exemption regime. That is all very welcome, and those are all positives. We need to ensure that the aspirations of the legislation are actually achieved and we can do that best through dialogue. Sinn Féin looks forward to working with the Minister, the Department and the committee and having the opportunity to discuss this legislation further and make any changes or amendments as required.

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