Joe Higgins (Dublin West, Socialist Party)

I commend strongly the Independent Deputies for making an important contribution to workers' rights in this country by tabling this motion. I find it reprehensible that, apart from The Irish Times, not a single other organ of the millionaire-owned press has covered the debate so far. The exposure of the criminal waste of taxpayers' funds in the health information technology services was widely reported, and rightly so, but what beckons in Irish Ferries is more fundamental to the future shape of this State.

I welcome members of the Seafarers Union of Ireland to the debate and, last night, members of SIPTU Seafarers. That Irish Ferries blatantly proposes to sack 543 seafaring workers who are on established trade union rates of pay and conditions and to replace them with cruelly exploited labour is a shameful indictment of the Government. There has been huge hypocrisy in the course of the debate, including from the Taoiseach. It is time there was a modicum of honesty, including from the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment.

Not a single Government spokesperson explained why it subsidised exactly the same sharp practice within the past 12 months when Irish Ferries sacked 120 workers on the MV Normandy and replaced them with the same cheap exploited eastern European workers? If it is wrong now, why was it not wrong then? The Government has not explained this, nor has anyone else. Therefore, the condemnation from the Government benches is hollow. Is it any wonder that the marauding capitalists at the helm of Irish Ferries felt brazen enough to go from sacking 120 workers to sacking 543 workers? It is because they were encouraged by the Government, among others.

What is at stake here is enormous. On a personal level, there is the shattering reality for a whole swathe of young people who have worked on the Jonathan Swift and other ships for four or five years, who have taken on mortgages, started families and built their future on the strength of these jobs, and who now see their futures being devastated because of the greed of Irish Ferries.

If Irish Ferries management is allowed to institutionalise a regime of semi-slave labour, every greed-driven boss in the State will salivate uncontrollably at the prospect of following suit and doing exactly the same, because they will see they can maximise their profit on the strength of exploited semi-slave labour. The fact that the bosses in IBEC, the national organisation of employers, endorsed strongly Irish Ferries and its strategy of exploiting cheap labour, should send a warning shiver through the psyche of every Irish worker and every migrant worker who wants to work in conditions of justice in this State.

Many references have been made to the fact that this is a breach of partnership. It is obvious that partnership is a flag of convenience for big business, IBEC and Irish Ferries to take the benefits when it suits them and kick the workers in the teeth when it does not. IBEC and the Construction Industry Federation did not utter a word of support through the hard months of struggle of the Turkish workers in Gama Construction, despite the fact that what the company was doing was a shame on their industry.

Far from being shocked at Irish Ferries, last night the Minister of State at the Department of Communications, Marine and Natural Resources echoed the arguments of Messrs. Rothwell and company. He virtually made the philosophical arguments under which they are carrying out this disgraceful strategy. The proposals of Irish Ferries are based on the morality of the 18th century slavers in modern-day conditions. It threatens with extinction the entire inherited body of maritime experience invested in the workforce. Crucially for Irish Ferries workers, for an island nation to allow this to happen would be recklessness beyond measure. The fact that it is for personal greed makes it outright criminality. Tens of millions of euro have been invested to try to have maritime experience and expertise, but it is being thrown away.

The Government is doing exactly the same as it did with Aer Lingus, which is privatising. Aer Lingus workers should shiver in anticipation because Irish Ferries was a publicly-owned company in the same way as Aer Lingus. Is the fate that awaits these workers, if the bosses get away with it, the future for Aer Lingus workers being privatised at the behest of the Government?

The Irish Ferries workers have been steered by the Government towards the Labour Court. They have been steered towards rocks rather than to a safe harbour. When Irish Ferries proposed 120 workers from MV Normandy, the Labour Court told it to go ahead because it is happening all over the place. What kind of comfort or consolation is it now to refer the 543 workers to the same body if the same rules will apply?

The workers must look to their own strengths. I urge the Seafarers Union of Ireland and SIPTU to use industrial action to ground Irish Ferries to stop this disgusting policy of exploiting vulnerable east European labour. The trade unions in Ireland should take joint action with French trade unionists. There should be Europe-wide trade union action that no modern-day slavers are allowed to ploy the waters of the European Union.

What about the talk we heard during the course of the EU referendums of the charter of rights and workers' rights endorsed in the EU? We were lectured. Where are they in respect of 543 Irish workers who face this threat? Why does the Government not introduce emergency legislation?

A few months ago, the Garda made great play of raiding lap-dancing clubs where young women from eastern Europe were being exploited. Their sisters and brothers face bonded labour aboard the banana boat flagships and are being exploited similarly. Has any garda been sent aboard to check this exploitation?

This type of exploitation is rampant in the meat industry. Irish workers, or migrant workers who want trade union rates, are frozen out of the meat industry. This practice is becoming rampant in construction and other areas. It is extremely serious for the future. If these industries get away with this, especially when there is a downturn in the economy and sharp competition for work, there will be a danger of racism and xenophobia.

The Government amendment is breathtaking in its cynicism and it should be rejected. I urge the entire trade union movement to recruit migrant workers right across the board so no boss can engage in the type of grotesque exploitation planned by Irish Ferries for its ferry services in the years ahead, if the company is allowed to get away with it.

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