Joe Higgins (Dublin West, Socialist Party)

Does the Taoiseach feel ashamed or in any way humiliated that a multinational construction company, Gama Construction, believes it can, in 2005 — in the Ireland which the Taoiseach claims to lead — set out to starve its Turkish workers into abandoning their fight for the wages it stole from them with the same arrogance and cruelty that William Martin Murphy and his cohorts treated the Dublin working class during the infamous lockout of 1913? The hidden wages which we fished out of a bank in Amsterdam are being transferred to family accounts but there is a long way to go. However, this is only a minority portion of what the workers are owed. Outstanding is the massive overtime for the 84-hour weeks which they routinely worked. Also outstanding is the issue of those fixed-wage employees who worked the same hours for an incredible €800 per month and for whom there are no wages in Amsterdam. Gama Construction criminally gave no wage slips and criminally shredded timesheets. Will the Taoiseach ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment to employ immediately a cohort of accountants with proper authority to process this massive overtime bill and to serve it within days?

As Gama callously cuts off the food to its workers on stoppage and has threatened to evict them, will the Taoiseach demand and ensure this does not happen and will he provide cover for these employees with bridging social welfare payments? Lest any eyebrows be raised about this, we should remind ourselves that the State and semi-State contracts which Gama won have saved the State at least €30 million. Other bidders lost out to Gama on the basis of its exploitation regime. This money is owed to the workers.

I read during the week that the new Pope has asked his flock to pray for him, "that I may not flee for fear of the wolves". Will the Taoiseach and the Government stand up to this ravenous wolf called Gama which is looming over the construction industry and threatening vulnerable workers, migrant workers and, by extension, the rights and conditions of all workers? Will the Taoiseach stand up to Gama from today and ensure this scandal ends forthwith?

See this speech in context