Michael McCarthy (Labour)

I ask the Leader to arrange a debate relating to the awarding of contracts from Departments for services operated by ferries from our islands. I refer in particular to the removal of transfer of undertakings (protection of employment), TUPE, legislation for one of those clauses. This refers to transfer of undertakings, which guarantees that if a contract is awarded again, the terms and conditions of the workers are held as they were before.

In one instance that clause was removed and this allowed a ferry operator owning a new contract to sack or demote workers and reduce wages. There is now a stand-off in west Cork as the operator further proposes to reduce wages and refuses to enter into any form of discussion with the trade union.

Will the Leader arrange for the relevant Minister to come to this House and debate the awarding of contracts for ferry services? The Minister should also explain why, in this particular instance, a clause which guaranteed workers' rights was removed.

In west Cork, we had a similar canvassing experience to that of Senators Coghlan and McFadden during the recent elections. When we went to a lodge for asylum seekers which had people on the electoral register, we were informed we could not canvass there even when other candidates had. A sign about canvassing was put up in a window in the lodge but after some exchanges it was removed and we were able to canvass.

A more serious issue I want to raise, however, is the length of time taken to process asylum applications. The political exploitation is only a small part of the overall exploitation of these people cooped up in these centres. It is not good for their physical or mental health to be cooped up for nearly two years seeing no administrative end to their plight, let alone a political one.