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

That was something of a non-answer. Union recognition by employers is a basic issue of democracy and the right to representation. Does the Minister agree, where employees come together for the purpose of securing their interests and protecting their conditions and are of the view that those rights are best served by being members of a trade union and selecting their own representatives to negotiate on their behalf, that they have the right to do so and that employers should respect that right? Does he agree that employers should negotiate with workers on that basis rather than do as some employers, such as Mr. O'Leary at Ryanair, have done, namely, to deny and subvert that right and to make their employees' lives a misery for seeking to assert their right to trade union representation? Should a Government which claims to care about ordinary working people and the vulnerable in society - if its deeds are to match its words - not ensure such a basic right for workers?

See this speech in context