Mick Wallace (Wexford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

It is unlikely to be me. I certainly hope this new proposed service will deliver but if it fails to do what it says on the tin, it will end up being just one more public expenditure cut - another measure to add to the undermining of the notion of the public good, which is a matter of public concern.

The neoliberals from the ESRI were prominent in the media this morning talking about big improvements in the Irish economic situation but there are some other figures that do not fit so well with the prognosis on the front page of The Irish Timestoday. At the back of the newspaper there was a piece by Professor Gerry Kearns of Maynooth University who highlighted that between 2005 and 2012, the average EU-27 number of those at risk of poverty has declined by 0.9%, while in Ireland we have jumped from 25% to 30%. To quote Professor Kearns: "It is clear, then, that a decade ago Ireland's poverty levels were at the European average whereas now they are considerably above it." Perhaps the ESRI and the Government ought to start looking at different measures of economic success than GDP as it only seems to be serving those who reside in the higher levels of the income bracket.

The Minister said that he wants to introduce a world-class workplace relations service but he has not done much to improve the lot of working people. He has done more to improve the lot of big business without doing the same for small and medium size businesses. As the Minister is aware, I am involved in the small and medium size business sector and I would still argue that things are not so easy in our domestic economy for small and medium size businesses. Unfortunately, we cannot help believing that large corporations have fared better than us in that area. If the Minister is to give us a world-class workplace relations service, it should be complemented by an improvement in workers' rights across the board and a greater focus on the problems of small and medium size businesses in Ireland.

At the core of the Bill is the way a human right is delivered in Ireland, namely, the entitlement of citizens in the determination of their rights and freedoms to a fair and public hearing.

While this effort to move towards a less complex and dysfunctional system is welcome, there are surrounding issues which overshadow the entire process and not all of them are being addressed.

This coalition is a neoliberal one, which puts the interests of large business before those of the public most of the time. Sadly, there has been a race to the bottom in terms of social protection, which worries me. To quote Dr. Julien Mercille of University College Dublin, whose recent book would be worth reading for most people:

... 'neoliberalism Irish-style' has borrowed elements of US neoliberalism, such as public-private partnerships, privatization of public services, low corporate and individual taxation, low level of government expenditures on social programmes and light regulation of the financial system.

There was a time, before the rise of the neoliberal ideology, when one of the general functions of the State was to enforce the principle of equality among citizens and to combat discrimination at work. It was also common practice for the State, when passing legislation or formulating policies, to take into consideration the effects its actions would have on the public sphere and work to minimise the impact of such actions. Now, sadly, we do things differently.

Under this new logic, the market and corporations view labour rights and legal systems in effect as regulation, on a par with financial regulation, in short, as a barrier to doing business in a particular country. It does not need to be this way. The business community or employer can work very well in a healthy system where the worker also has protection. I am all in favour of strong regulation and doing away with senseless, needless bureaucracy. There is a big difference between regulation and bureaucracy, but sometimes people confuse them. Bureaucracy holds everyone back. We need to do away with as much of it as possible whereas strict regulation is important to keep things on track.

The French legal scholar, Alain Supiot, whose book is essential reading, stated in his 2001 European Commission report on employment that a hypothesis has been put forward, backed by a rigorous historical analysis, to the effect that our societies are heading towards unknown forms of re-feudalisation. Judging by the present European legal framework, states no longer hold a monopoly over the definition of the general interest. They must take account, on the other hand, of community authority and of social partners which regard themselves, for different reasons, as being entitled to establish law.

Supiot's 2001 prognosis has turned out to be extremely prescient. Leaked documents from the transatlantic trade and investment partnership, TTIP, trade deal outline how, after the trade deal is completed and put into force, a joint EU-US regulatory forum will be set up in order for representatives of the business community to have so-called transparency in relation to changes to legislation and regulation in Europe and the US. What the 600 corporations who wrote the TTIP mean by "transparency" is that prior to the discussion of legislation in Ireland that may affect the profits of big business, the Irish Government and the EU must first give fair warning to corporations that may face losses to give them time to start lobbying against the legislation before it even reaches the Dáil floor.

The Minister and I have had many discussions about TTIP. There is an open discussion to be had on the matter. The media is not having it. It does not seem to be interested. We should have it in the House.

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