Finian McGrath (Dublin North Central, Independent)

I wish to share time with Deputies Healy, Breen and Joe Higgins.

I thank the Chair for the opportunity to speak in this debate on Irish Ferries and the issue of low pay in Irish society. I thank and commend my Independent colleagues for coming together on this important issue. This is an opportunity to show our citizens that the Independent Deputies from Marino, Kildare, Dublin's inner city, Tipperary, Galway, Sligo, Monaghan and Clare can work together in the Dáil on issues like low pay, disabilities, the health service, the environment, the peace process and international affairs. Let the message go out from this House that the Independent Deputies are a strong voice in the Dáil as well as in their local communities. Independent Deputies will be staying on the pitch and will always be a voice for the poor, the sick, the disabled, the elderly and working people generally.

I totally deplore the proposal to sack 543 workers, who are on trade union rates of pay, to be replaced by exploited migrant workers with appalling conditions and wages. Low pay is wrong. It is time to nail this issue to the mast. Some companies and employers want us all to go back to the dark ages. Some Members of this House, including members of the Cabinet, want to see low pay and exploitation of workers here, as part of a right-wing economic agenda. We, as legislators have a duty to challenge them at all levels. We challenge them in this House tonight because the proposal from Irish Ferries will have an effect on the rights of workers in the future, both Irish and migrant.

I condemn the greed driving this strategy, as evidenced by the fact the chief executive of Irish Ferries was paid €687,000 last year while the eastern European workers that the company proposes to employ will be on €3.50 per hour, less than half the current legal minimum wage in this State. I also deplore the support which the employers' body, IBEC, publicly gave to the strategy of Irish Ferries, thus making a mockery of its claim to be in partnership with workers and trade unions.

I challenge the hypocrisy of this Government. It is pretending to be critical of the Irish Ferries proposal yet it paid a grant of millions of euro to that company to make 150 workers redundant on the MV Normandy, to be replaced by exploited labour. I also condemn the growing tendency in the construction sector — in my constituency, at the Dublin Port tunnel works — the meat industry and the hotel and catering trade, to exploit migrant workers at the expense of permanent jobs on trade union rates of pay and with decent working conditions.

I demand that Irish Ferries abandon its proposal immediately. I also demand that the Government introduces legislation to outlaw ship owners and operators using flags of convenience to trample on workers' rights. I urge all Deputies to support the motion, which is about Irish Ferries, low pay and justice for workers.

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