Jerry Cowley (Mayo, Independent)

I thank the Ceann Comhairle and I am grateful for the opportunity to speak on this debate. I congratulate Deputies Harkin and Higgins on the hard work they did on this directive. The services directive is a misguided attempt to facilitate trade within the European Union. While its creators claim to have economic interests in mind, they failed to fully explore and evaluate the potential risks, such as the removal of safeguards against exploitation of workers. I believe the essential point to be made is that we must put the interests of people before the interests of money and preserving an economic boom that frankly carries no guarantees of continuing and has the potential of putting the poorest members of our society such as migrant workers in an ever-increasing state of vulnerability. We must not think like that. We must think of people foremost.

The services directive puts at risk the workers on which our economic success depends. We must not allow unprincipled employers the opportunity to relocate their businesses or workers into poorer EU states to take advantage of lower standards of employee rights and access to quality social services or to come here to take advantage of workers in Ireland whether they are local or migrant.

Concerns have been raised across the EU on the dangerous impacts of including social services in this directive. Dr. Beverley Malone, the general secretary of the Royal College of Nursing, the largest professional union of nursing in the world, stated:

Nurses are extremely concerned about the potential consequences of including healthcare in this directive. The systems of regulation and monitoring of quality standards in this country are designed to ensure that patients receive well administered and high quality care. There is a real danger that there could be a race to the bottom in terms of standards, with unscrupulous companies setting up in countries with the least rigorous regulation in order to then maximise profits elsewhere. We urge the Government to exclude health and social care from the directive.

She also stated that the directive should be thrown out. The services directive not only threatens the preservation of migrant interests, it also threatens the security of Irish workers whose interests are put at risk by allowing low standards of safety and inequitable minimum wages such as those that would be allowed under the country of origin principle of the services directive.

See this speech in context