Phil Hogan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael)

I thank the Ceann Comhairle for allowing this important matter to be debated by Dáil Éireann. We are calling on the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Deputy Martin, to intervene with Irish Ferries in order to ensure that our exports, employment standards and the continuation of social partnership are protected. I wish to share time with Deputies Perry and Kehoe.

The Fine Gael Party has watched the unfolding of events in Irish Ferries with a growing sense of disgust and horror. The company's actions have been an example of the worst type of Dickensian exploitation I have ever seen in this country. Irish Ferries is an Irish-registered subsidiary company. As such, it should be subject to the laws of this country, including legislation that protects the minimum wage and makes provision for employee protection and health and safety. It has been allowed to get away with industrial marauding as a result of a legal nonsense. This debate is not concerned with immigration, globalisation or free market economics. I believe firmly in an open market, a flexible employment atmosphere and the value of non-nationals coming to Ireland to work. This debate, rather, is about a greedy and grubby company that is intent on maximising profits. It is not just seeking a cheaper labour force; it is intent on putting in place a criminally cheap one by abusing European maritime law and exploiting Irish labour conditions.

An industrial relations infrastructure has been established in this country, which, at the very least, ensures that workers from new countries cannot be exploited and must be paid a decent wage. That legislation has protected Irish workers from having their jobs replaced by new arrivals to our shores. Europe-wide policies are required to ensure that we have proper workplace standards so that Irish employees are not dumped on the scrapheap of unemployment and replaced by workers from other member states of the European Union. It is not acceptable that Irish Ferries, for no good reason other than that it runs ships as opposed to buses or trains, does not have to obey the laws of this land.

In my opinion, it has run roughshod over 40 years of industrial diplomacy. We should be mindful that this industrial diplomacy has helped to create the conditions that fomented the Celtic tiger, from which everyone, including Irish Ferries, has benefited. The Government has been slow to come up with a solution to this problem. The Taoiseach and other members of Government have criticised Irish Ferries, by empathising with the workers and admonishing the company, but this is not enough. My colleague, Deputy Perry, in an effort to be helpful, has called within the past week or two for the Minister to seek support from his EU counterparts to have the practice of reflagging outlawed throughout the European Union. It is only by doing this that we can rid the seas and this country of the cancer of exploitation that Irish Ferries seems intent on spreading through the body politic.

The Irish people have shown their support for the European Union, time and again. This initiative must be addressed through the EU to ensure that the activities of Irish Ferries are deemed illegal, just as they have been found to be immoral by almost everybody, with the exception of the representatives of certain august bodies who should know better. The management of Irish Ferries should be obliged to remain loyal to the social partnership process. It should have been loyal to the people who helped it become profitable. I wonder whether it can count on the loyalty of the Irish people in the future. The Irish are fair-minded people. They certainly condemn indecency and dishonesty in company affairs.

I also wonder whether Irish Ferries can depend on the loyalty of exporters, importers and tourists who have been so inconvenienced during this sorry drama. Even at this late stage, I urge the company to have a change of heart. My party leader earlier called on the Taoiseach to gather the players together and resolve this problem. I acknowledge that this is easier said than done. Nonetheless, the machinery of the State, which has been deployed to best advantage to try to resolve this crisis through the Labour Court, has come up with a reasonable set of proposals, which the company stated, unilaterally, that it cannot implement. If social partnership is to be achieved to the ultimate degree, all the players concerned must be involved in the give and take process. Workers must take particular agreements on board in order to progress, as has been the case under the various national wage agreements since 1987. Equally, employers must do the same. However, when an employer such as Irish Ferries unilaterally turns down an invitation from the State's industrial relations machinery, namely, the Labour Court, to proceed with the implementation of its plans on the basis of a negotiated settlement, this is a very worrying trend and something of which we should not be proud.

The Irish Ferries dispute is encapsulated in the fact that companies are increasingly under threat in terms of their competitiveness. Irish Ferries believes that because of the stealth taxes and charges imposed in this jurisdiction, the Irish labour market is no longer appropriate to its conditions of employment. The high wage spiral and the high costs associated with this are now having rip-off and knock-on effects as regards competitiveness. At this stage, however, the threat of tear gas is the last straw as regards the ultimate response of fair-minded people in this country towards this dispute. It is an unhelpful throwback to the last century that any company should seek to protect the security of its ships by employing tear gas. That is not the essence of partnership. Neither does it assist the process which seeks to ensure that our exporting potential, as an island nation, is protected and that the employment standards derived under social partnership are in place. I ask the Minister, Deputy Martin, to take every possible opportunity to intervene. I appreciate that it is not easy to get a company such as Irish Ferries to listen. However, this debate should provide him with the necessary support to ensure that he intervenes with Irish Ferries on a continuous basis. He should also ensure at EU level that there is a co-ordinated response as regards employment standards. Flags of convenience and reflagging should not be used to promote cheap and exploited labour in this jurisdiction.

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