Colm Keaveney (Galway East, Labour)

There are two ways we can view the recent High Court ruling on the issue of JLCs and EROs. We can look at the situation as it currently pertains as a complete disaster or we can look at it as a new opportunity. In my view, we really do not have the time to waste looking at this as a disaster. It should be seen as an opportunity. I appreciate that Deputy Boyd Barrett is very concerned about the situation, as are we all. I remind him it was not the Dáil which dismantled the JLCs but rather the High Court. I hope there is broad agreement in the House that this is a matter to be addressed as comprehensively and speedily as possible once we return in September. Admittedly, however, there is no straightforward, quick-fix solution, as Deputy Finian McGrath would like to believe. The complexity of the issues surrounding the High Court ruling on the joint labour committee agreements cannot be understated. It is no exaggeration to say that we have a mountain to climb over the course of the summer recess to put the correct legislation before the House at the earliest opportunity. However, we should not use any excuse to delay action because it would be regarded as a fault of this House if there were to be an attack on the working poor before the publication of the legislation.

I am surprised that someone with the legal wisdom of Deputy Willie O'Dea, whom I have always considered to be a person of great legal mind and a good political operator, has failed to foresee the sequence of events which led to this situation. Fianna Fáil had the time and the opportunity to enact the required change but it passed up on that opportunity. It cannibalised its own Bill in the process and, in effect, its members have done a cut and paste job to take advantage of vulnerable working people. I am not going to argue with Deputy O'Dea on that point because we need to focus on how we can help the situation. The Members of this House were not elected to talk about Fianna Fáil but rather to protect those in society who are unable to protect themselves.

The High Court ruling does not provide an opportunity for reform. We have to set out a goal to limit any unfair treatment by opportunistic employers and we need to decide how quickly we can put strong legislation in place. We are faced with an opportunity to overhaul comprehensively an archaic and broken system. The High Court has decided it is broken. With the correct approach we can set down new, modernised wage setting mechanisms in a constitutional manner. This is an opportunity to restore full decency and fairness to the system, for workers and employers alike, and to introduce mechanisms which realistically reflect the challenges of a modern economy and society.

We have had the dialogue and the debate. We are all in broad agreement on the necessity of reforms. Despite the difficulties we face and the legal complexity surrounding the issues, this is not an insurmountable challenge. The crucial point is we must move quickly.

Any new system developed over the course of the summer must ensure unreservedly that workers in JLC sectors end up earning no less than their current wages. A new system should allow for equal if not greater levels of pay for workers who are the real backbone of this economy. When this issue is discussed in September, I do not want to hear the term "pay flexibility" thrown around as corporate and political language in an attempt to attack the working poor. This group has been hit the hardest as a consequence of the downturn in the economy. These are the lowest paid workers in society who are least deserving of a pay cut as a consequence of the failure of the previous Administration.

I wish to highlight a recent League of Credit Unions survey which found that more than 585,000 people surveyed see no future for themselves or their families in this country. This is a shameful number. It is up to this Government to put a stop to this thinking. We will not do so by undermining the ability of ordinary workers to live stable and financially secure lives without the worry that their jobs will be taken from them or that they will be subject to cuts in their wage rates.

The Minister and his Department have a mountain to climb but there is nothing that cannot be achieved. I am confident a political solution will be found and that workable, robust and constitutionally viable reforms will be put in place when the Government returns to business in September.

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