Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

I am answering Deputy Rabbitte, and speaking to the company at the same time if I can do that, which it is perhaps useful to do. We have a collective industrial relations system and it is not done by diktat or Government enforcement. It is and has been done since 1946 on the basis of people coming together and it has worked fairly well for almost 60 years. That is what happens.

On the question of redundancy, I hope we can have an answer on that matter. This is a real issue. The basis for redundancy is that a job is gone and the State pays a contribution. In this case it is clear the company is using the flag of convenience to let a workforce go and replace it with non-nationals who will be paid wages which fall far below the statutory national minimum wage. This is not acceptable to the Labour Court, the national implementation body or whatever way we engage with IBEC. We are endeavouring to get the company to see there is another way of resolving the issue. If it refuses to go to the Labour Court and to the national implementation body, we must look at the redundancy issue. It is sad that a large company, a member of the national employers group which is part of the agreement, adopts such an attitude. Without stating it any more strongly, I would be very disappointed if a serious company did that.

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