Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)

With that caution in mind, the Labour Party intends to progress this issue somewhat further. I am disappointed the Government is insisting on amending the motion because, given the degree of agreement in the contributions made, including by Ministers and members of the Government parties, I thought this was an occasion when the Government might have accepted the motion. If the Government insists on pressing its amendment and in effect defeating the motion tabled by the Labour Party and Sinn Féin, the Labour Party will progress this issue by introducing our own Bill to protect temporary agency workers. My colleague, Deputy Willie Penrose, has been working on this issue for some time and has been preparing legislation for introduction in the House to give to temporary agency workers the equal treatment which they deserve, to give them the fairness and the protection of their rights which they and their representatives are seeking. The Labour Party has completed its preparation of that Bill which we will publish next week and introduce in the House on First Stage at the first available opportunity.

This is an important issue which cannot be allowed to rest on the basis of a promise from Government. Too often in the past, we have seen Government being all things to all people on issues like this.

I do not intend to introduce a contrarian note into this discussion but I disagree with the point made by Deputy Ferris where he attributes the difficulty here to the Lisbon treaty or to the European Union. Our problem with this issue is much closer to home. As Deputy Penrose pointed out last night and as is contained in the very fine document which has been circulated by the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, 18 member states of the European Union have domestic legislation which protects the rights of temporary agency workers. The European Union has been attempting to introduce a directive to give rights to temporary agency workers and the Government is just one of three governments which, despite what the Minister of State said this evening, has been blocking that legislation. It is in this country that the legislation needs to be introduced and it is here in this Parliament that it needs to be enacted to give those rights to temporary agency workers, irrespective of whether they are Irish agency workers or from elsewhere.

This issue is critically important now as this country is turning an economic corner. It was very easy for Government to be all things to all people when times were very good; to be on the side of the worker, business, the entrepreneur, the builder and the housebuyer, all at the one time, but we are entering an era where certain choices will have to be made. One of those choices is whether we as a country and the Government and its agencies, and this House, stand by those who are most vulnerable in changing economic circumstances. Those who are most vulnerable are those who earn the lowest levels of pay, those in the most insecure employment, those first out the door when things begin to tighten in an enterprise. In this case, they are the people who are employed on an agency basis.

The issue of agency workers, which is the subject directly addressed by tonight's motion, is one that requires urgent attention. It is estimated there may be as many as 120,000 workers involved. I heard the Minister say yesterday that it is 2% of the workforce, which is not quite in line with the point made by the Minister of State, Deputy Conor Lenihan, who effectively acknowledged that a very large number of undocumented workers are working in economy and need to be protected.

I welcome the supportive comments made on this motion tonight. I hope the Government will stand by its commitment to introduce the legislation. However, just in case it does not, the Labour Party will introduce its own Bill on the issue and we will pursue it at the first available opportunity in the House.

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