Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

As I have said previously, the orderly conduct of industrial relations depends on respect for the basic norms of the institutions of the State, the Labour Court in this instance. The recommendations of the Labour Court are not generally binding, as all employers and trade unions know, but they should be respected as the proper resolution of disputes. This is especially the case with the Irish Ferries dispute. I said this to the trade unions, management and the executive of Irish Ferries when I met them. The court has spelled out very carefully its views on the fundamental aspects of the negotiations and on the collective agreements. It upholds the basic principles that agreements should be honoured unless there are compelling reasons to vary them. In this case, having heard the comprehensive arguments from both sides, the Labour Court concluded that the company has not made a sufficiently compelling case to justify the unilateral termination of the agreement with SIPTU. The court went on to state that all the possibilities of re-negotiating aspects to the agreement of concern to the company had not been exhausted. It recommended, therefore, that the parties resume negotiations on such changes as are necessary in order to address the commercial needs of the company. Having regard to the clear risk to the conduct of ordinary industrial relations to which the Deputy referred and which the Labour Court said would otherwise arise, I urge strongly the parties to enter into the negotiations with an independent facilitator if necessary. The issues in dispute between SIPTU and the company can be resolved satisfactorily and speedily and they should do that.

The Deputy also raised the issue of the company's plans to recruit new staff to reflagged vessels. The Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources has declined an application by the company to remove the vessels from the Irish register and to transfer them to the Cypriot register. He did so on the advice of the Attorney General. I have been advised there is little prospect of regulating the employment conditions of staff employed on vessels which are under the Irish flag. The other issue raised was about the handling of the redundancy payments and tax law. What I said about them previously still stands.

See this speech in context