Jerry Cowley (Mayo, Independent)

I compliment Sinn Féin on bringing forward a motion which is sensible and must be supported. Exploitation of people is an important issue that deserves our attention. The right to work in safe conditions that are not harmful to health and well-being can be taken for granted. I had experience of this when, as a student, I went to the US on a J1 visa and got a job with the Union of Students of Ireland Travel. I worked in upstate New York where I was asked to spray-paint dozens of beds without a mask. Although as a pre-med student I should have known better, I did it for several weeks before somebody told me I should wear a mask. We must ensure that standards are enforced. The difficulty is that so much lip service is paid to labour law by the State. If we were serious about this the situation of the Gama workers, where people continued to seriously jeopardise employees' health, would not have arisen.

Ireland sent its people all over the world as economic migrants because they could not make a living in this country. This country failed them but they went overseas and supported us. They were exploited by people in their host country, particularly the UK, and by their own people. We have to live with that history. We have many thousands of migrants from Poland, Latvia, and other countries which, like Ireland, are economically deprived and cannot support them. They have to go overseas and send money home to support their families. We have seen many documentaries on areas in eastern Europe that are depopulated. That population lives in places in the west of Ireland such as Tuam. It is good that this country can give them a living but we have a duty of care to them. We have a duty to ensure that vulnerable economic migrants are treated well, not as many Irish people were treated when they went abroad to populate the world.

The idea of having a separate Department of labour affairs is eminently sensible and important. The motion mentions the conflict in having a Department that covers both enterprise policy, including competition policy, and labour affairs. It is not logical that the Department that promotes enterprise is also the policeman that ensures that people are not exploited in the attempt to make profit. The idea of people before profit is a noble objective and puts the interests of people before the interests of money. If the market were allowed to proceed without labour legislation the result would be slave labour. We saw that in the race to the bottom by Irish Ferries. I support this motion and the idea of a joint committee that would shadow such a Department of labour affairs.

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