Joe Higgins (Dublin West, Socialist Party)

I warmly commend my colleagues in the Independent section of the Technical Group on this timely motion. The principles which it lays down are crystal clear, namely, that no directive should be tolerated which would in any way undermine the principles of a decent wage for workers, decent conditions and trade union rights in the workplace.

The Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment came into the House yesterday and stated that "unfortunately, much confusion surrounds this directive because of its complexity", implying that its opponents are a bunch of dul amús, too stupid to understand its crucial implications because of its complexity. Time and again the Minister has criticised the directive's opponents without dealing in any way with the nub of their reservations, which have been outlined clearly and excellently in the debate by both Members and outside groups.

However, the Minister undermined the directive in his speech. He was forced to so do because he knows the concern that exists among workers throughout Europe. He stated:

We [the Government] are as concerned as anyone else is in this House ... with issues of standards, especially employment standards. This is why, for anyone who cares to look at the latest draft of the directive, one will see more than 300 footnotes of reservations, many of them from Ireland.

Why would there be 300 reservations, many dealing with the erosion of workers' standards, if this document was not a massive attack on those standards to begin with? In this instance, the Minister has admitted the case. Furthermore, he stated:

We can have a very agitated debate about the country of origin principle, although this would amount to a great deal of wasted energy and hot air. All the indications are ... that the Commission intends to amend significantly that aspect of the directive.

In other words, the Minister concedes the point.

See this speech in context