Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Sinn Fein)

If Deputy Buttimer would like to listen, I might enlighten him.

This left up to 200,000 workers defenceless in the face of unscrupulous employers and it meant that decent employers who were looking to pay a decent wage were finding themselves uncompetitive due to the race to the bottom on wages.

When the pay and conditions and the protection of more than 200,000 people on average who earn approximately €18,000 per annum collapses, it is mandatory for any left-wing party to seek to immediately rebuild that protection. We in Sinn Féin demanded that Fine Gael and Labour appeal the High Court decision; they refused. We demanded that they introduce legislation immediately to resolve the issue; they refused. We did so because hundreds of thousands of workers and their immediate pay rates were under threat. Workers feared being let go and re-hired on low-wage contracts, or merely being let go and replaced by others on lower wage contracts.

Over the summer, what has emerged is a two-tier wage system where those on the original contracts are being paid one wage and those on the new contracts are being paid a lower wage, but that is not new. We have seen the Government introduce it to the public sector. As a result, we in Sinn Féin took the initiative. We consulted with all of the unions. We got the support of all of the unions on this issue.

Since then, many in Fine Gael and Labour have attempted to hide behind what they would call legal arguments such as that this Bill is not robust enough, is not water-tight and perhaps they should wait a little longer. If the Bill is not watertight enough for certain Members, that is no reason for political inertia. Rather, it should act as a spur to action on this issue. The Sinn Féin Bill can be strengthened to ensure JLCs are put on a legal footing that is beyond further legal challenge. I invite all Members to assist in that effort in the coming weeks.

I appeal to Fine Gael and Labour Party Members not to play politics with the issue.

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