Presentation to the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs Enterprise & Innovation

1. Workers Cooperative Network www.workerscooperativenetwork.org Presentation to the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs Enterprise & Innovation

2. Recommendations slide 1 of 3 • Dail Debate on ILO-193 • International Labour Organisation recommendation 193 on the promotion of cooperatives, • The Government are signatories to same • Supportive Legislative Framework – promoting an enabling environment • Worker Cooperatives to be recognised as a separate sector within the cooperative family i.e. similar to the Credit Union sector with the Credit Union Act 1997 • Or at a minimum to be recognised as a specific category under the Industrial & Provident Societies Act i.e. similar to the Group Water Schemes • Relevant Bills to be published in late 2012 include • The Friendly Societies and Industrial and Provident Societies (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill • To introduce a number of regulatory improvements for co-operative societies and to make certain other changes • The Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation Companies Bill • To bring greater clarification and simplification to the companies code and to modernise Irish company law through the consolidation of the existing 15 Company Law Acts, other regulations and case law. Presentation to the JOC on Jobs Enterprise & Innovation

3. Recommendations slide 2 of 3 • Supportive Legislative Framework – promoting an enabling environment • A mandatory indivisible reserve • An Irish equivalent of the Italian Basevi Law (1947) • An Irish equivalent of the Italian Marcora laws (law 49/85) • Allows redundant workers to use their accumulated unemployment benefit, up to 3 years, to capitalise a buyout cooperative. It thus forms part of the welfare bridge from unemployment to self-employment. Presentation to the JOC on Jobs Enterprise & Innovation

4. Recommendations slide 3 of 3 • Cooperative Education, Training & Promotion • Learning from our European partners - on how best to build the most appropriate structures in Ireland • North South Cooperation • A cooperative equivalent of InterTrade Ireland (www.intertradeireland.com) • A southern equivalent of the Northern Ireland Cooperative Forum (www.nicoop-forum.co.uk) • A Southern equivalent of the Northern All Party Committee on Cooperatives & Mutuals • Cooperation between these islands & beyond • Developments in the UK, • The UK Coop Bill and the Nuttall Review • e.g. “Right to Request” • Use of the (SCE) European Cooperative Society statute, to enable a high tech initiative involving Ireland & the Mondragon Cooperative Corporation combining worker cooperatives in both jurisdictions • As the SCE is coming up for review, Ireland to use it’s presidency of the EU to strengthen the SCE for the benefit of cooperatives throughout the EU – regulation 1435/2003. Presentation to the JOC on Jobs Enterprise & Innovation