Tony Dempsey (Wexford, Fianna Fail)

Tá díoma orm go bhfuil muid ag plé ceiste comh deacair is atá an cheist seo.

The seafaring industry nationally is worth in the order of €1.45 billion to the economy. Deputy Howlin and I have met Irish Ferries and members of the seafaring industry regularly in recent years. I do not need to stress the importance of Irish Ferries to Wexford and the importance of what Irish Ferries is attempting to do.

The Taoiseach's recent contribution in the Dáil left us in no doubt as to how the Government views the approach of Irish Ferries, which is to be regretted. There are implications for the whole of the social partnership on which the success of the last decade has been founded. Whether, as the Taoiseach pointed out, the offer from Irish Ferries can be viewed as redundancy is a question that is open to debate. The Attorney General has indicated that even though no application has as yet been made to the Department and he cannot rule on it until such an application is made he has grave concerns. It appears to me that if one offers a redundancy on a take it-or accept deteriorating employment conditions, that is not redundancy.

The conflict is between a company trying to enhance profits and a union trying to protect the rights of workers who have contributed in no small measure to serious profits for Irish Ferries. At long last Irish Ferries may have seen some light since it has agreed to talk. All conflicts can only be resolved by meaningful dialogue and engagement where people are prepared to listen to the other point of view. It is a tragedy that in this case Irish Ferries has taken too long to listen to what its workers are saying. Workers may well be forced to accept what is called redundancy through fear.

The difficulty for a Government is that it cannot introduce legislation willy-nilly without reference to the European Union. While it might be appropriate to say that a foreign company using our ports would have to accept Irish labour law the converse would be that an Irish ship entering another port might have to accept the labour laws of that port. That is the difficulty. The Ministers involved will do their best to introduce some kind of legislation the result of which should be that the seafaring industry is not decimated.

The maritime college in Cork has been set up at tremendous expense to the taxpayer. If the few professionals who are training there to take out their various tickets cannot be ensured employment within our national industry it would be an unmitigated disaster.

I have no problem with non-nationals working in Ireland provided they work under Irish contracts and are treated with the respect which Members of all parties and Independent Members have earned for workers in the past. That is kernel of this matter. We cannot return to Dickensian days and tell workers that they did not contribute. Neither can we ignore the contribution seafarers have made. The shipping industry would be under threat if the Irish Ferries company was not prepared to note and accept the workers' contribution. The cost to us as taxpayers could be in the region of €12 million if redundancies occur. I, for one, hope it will be ruled that it is not a redundancy situation. The cost to the company is significant also. The profits it hopes to enhance could be considerably reduced by the cost of the redundancy package, if it is implemented.

The motion by the Independent group of Deputies has focused the House on this matter and I am glad we can be ad idem on it. It is time Irish Ferries considered national and local interests apart from profits.

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