Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)

Does the Taoiseach agree that while the idea of social partnership sounds like a good and fair idea, the reality of social partnership during the past 20 or 30 years has favoured employers and the wealthy over workers to a great extent? For example, the Taoiseach may or may not be aware of the share of national wealth that has gone to wages and salaries as against the share that has gone to profits, shares and bonuses. There has been a 10% shift in the share to the latter from the former. Does the Taoiseach agree that the facts suggest that social partnership has been a means to transfer wealth from working people to the wealthy in our society? There seems to be a suggestion in the Taoiseach's comments that we should move away from the existing model of social partnership to what he terms "social dialogue" and that a key objective in doing this should be to reverse that situation. In this regard, I draw the Taoiseach's attention to a dispute currently taking place in Dún Laoghaire, now almost entering its first full year of industrial action. Workers in a shoe shop, Connolly Shoes, some of whom have worked there for 38 years, have been unceremoniously sacked because they refused to accept swingeing cuts in their pay and conditions. They have simply requested consultation on these issues but have been left out on the street.

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