Duncan Smith (Dublin Fingal, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I will present how Meat Industry Ireland is being viewed. We have had no other industries in here like the meat industry over the last number of weeks. This is not our first session on the meat industry. It has been discussed in questions to the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine. There are huge questions about the industry which Meat Industry Ireland represents and many people out there see Meat Industry Ireland as the bad guys here. That is the reality of it. In order to tackle that, it would be a good step for Meat Industry Ireland to meet with SIPTU - I am glad to hear that Mr. Healy has indicated he will - but also organisations such as the Migrant Rights Centre Ireland.

The first line of Meat Industry Ireland's submission states that its sector "accounted for almost €4 billion of food exports". That is a huge amount of money. It almost comes across like a boast. I am not sure it is meant to be. It comes across as though they are saying theirs is a huge industry and they bring in all this money. Many of us in this Chamber and throughout the country have massive concerns about how their workers are being treated and where that money is going because it does not seem to be going into the pockets of the skilled knifemen Meat Industry Ireland presents here which it had to go out and attract into the country. I am not sure Meat Industry Ireland has attracted them with big contracts and wages commensurate to theiir skills. There is a huge body of work that needs to be done by Mr. Carroll's organisation to win the trust of the Irish people in relation to how Meat Industry Ireland is treating its workers. I want to ask one final question. Is there any sense among Meat Industry Ireland when it is having internal meetings that it has let its workers down?