Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

Bypassing the 30-day consultation period and only informing the Tánaiste at the last minute about a collective redundancy, when it was already public knowledge, is not a good way for any company to behave in a global, national or local context. I do not accept that because these were global announcements, they somehow get to bypass that period. They behaved in an absolutely disgraceful manner. I have spoken to some of the workers and they do not feel the empathy or support Ms Buckley spoke about. They feel that these companies showed no regard for the legal protections and processes in place or the Government. It is understandable that people facing into a cost-of-living crisis feel that. It is never a good time to lose one's job but this is probably the worst time. While I appreciate that some companies are working with their staff to help them find alternative work, not all of them are. A very unfortunate situation has developed. I appreciate what Ms Buckley said about the global situation but the manner in which this was done, including that it was done in public and the announcements were made before the Tánaiste was notified, does not send a very good message.