Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)

Did the Taoiseach watch the "Prime Time" programme last night which assessed the performance of Irish Ferries since it displaced its Irish workforce and took on cheaper labour? For example, it showed that the 48 Irish staff retained by agreement at the time had been driven out as a matter of policy by the company's management and only four workers were left. The programme detailed the tactics deployed by management to drive them out and also produced a number of e-mails. For example, in the recruitment of additional staff, managers were instructed not to employ Irish workers. A number of e-mails highlighted the concern among passengers because nobody could speak English on vessels and they were concerned about this from a safety point of view and so on. In addition, the Taoiseach gave the company €4.3 million in taxpayer's money to displace the Irish workers and recruit cheaper labour.

The programme went on to detail the various practices being followed and the exploitation taking place in other sectors and how workers who had come to Ireland, especially from third countries, were left high and dry because of the influx of workers from EU member states and the failure to renew their work permits. It is 15 months since I raised these issues and the Labour Party published a document entitled, A Fairer Place to Work and Live. Many of its recommendations were imported into the new national agreement, Towards 2016, last summer. However, the problem is one can go through the commitments made and tick them off but none is being implemented. For example, Jack O'Connor this week said:

The Government has made virtually no progress in implementing the labour protection measures in Towards 2016. There is no evidence of Revenue activity to stop bogus self-employment, no evidence of any commitment to effectively regulate employment agencies and no evidence of using public procurement of goods and services to uphold employment standards.

There are still only 31 labour inspectors to cover a workforce of 2 million. All the commitments regarding the new enforcement agency which was to be established to ensure work standards were being complied with have not been implemented. On the bottom rung of the ladder workers are being displaced blatantly and for no other reason than some employers find it possible to exploit non-national workers who are afraid to join trade unions or put their heads up and are willing to work additional hours and for the national minimum wage or less than it. The commitments entered into in Towards 2016 have not been implemented.

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