Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)

The Taoiseach has indicated that he has just been conferring with his Minister of State. Is the Taoiseach aware that only last Wednesday, in response to a parliamentary question, the Minister of State, Deputy Kelleher, attempted to defend the Government's position in the European Union in blocking the directive to regulate employment agencies? In his reply, he claimed it would not be in the industrial relations tradition of this country. Does the Taoiseach agree that the conduct of employment agencies in cutting wages, exploiting workers and forcing many other workers onto the dole queues is in the tradition only of William Martin Murphy?

When does the Taoiseach propose to take the relevant steps to tackle the gross abuses being carried out by employment agencies? Given that the conduct of these agencies is setting worker against worker and subverting the hard won rights and pay agreements, a succession of which the Taoiseach was party to, I have to ask whose side is he on? What national tradition was the Minister of State referring to in his reply to the parliamentary question only last Wednesday?

Is the Taoiseach aware that the intervention of the National Implementation Body in the Aer Lingus dispute was necessitated as a result of an attempt by management to impose wage cuts? Does he recall that when the whole debate in relation to the former national airline was taking place here, workers at Aer Lingus clearly indicated that a consequence of privatisation would be wage and job cuts and that voices in this House, then and still opposed to privatisation, cautioned that this was exactly what would materialise? Is the Taoiseach aware that SIPTU has referred the pay freeze imposed unilaterally by Aer Lingus on its employees to the Labour Relations Commission and the Labour Court and has clearly stated that it is in breach of the national agreement, Towards 2016? What is the Taoiseach's reaction to the situation pertaining at Aer Lingus?

This is probably the first opportunity the Taoiseach has had since the resumption of the Dáil to state his position categorically. I ask him to make it absolutely clear to those in FÁS who have proposed a reduction in the minimum wage, as well as to all interested parties, including, first and foremost, workers and the trade union movement, that his Government will not countenance any such reduction and let FÁS take heed of that fact.

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