Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein)

I welcome some of the La Senza workers who are in the Visitors' Gallery. My colleague, Mr. Eoin Ó Broin, and I were at the Liffey Valley store this morning. There is much support from local people. People are shocked by what has happened. Is it not right that an employee who has worked for a company for nine and a half years is told on a Monday morning by seven heavies that her job is gone with no communication, phone call or e-mail? She still has not been officially told whether her job is gone, but the stores are closed.

This company is making fools not only of the staff but of Irish taxpayers and of the legislation on workers' rights. Will we allow the company to get away with this? This is the real question people want to ask. Is there any way to stop this? Other people have spoken about the fact that the workers have no proof they have lost their jobs and this is a difficulty in itself. The only way the workers can prove it is that the trade union in which some of them are involved can provide a letter of comfort to the Department of Social Protection. It highlights the difficulties in this regard and the importance of being members of a trade union.

In a number of cases people have taken slices of companies and the only people left without their payments are the workers. There is something wrong with the legislation if it allows this to happen. A portion of the company has already been sold off and €6.5 million in profits was sent to Britain after December. All of the workers in the Visitors' Gallery worked overtime and have not been paid. When will they be paid? We can go through tribunals but how long will this take with a waiting list of 35,000 people? It could be two years before these people are paid. Something is wrong and we need to fix it.

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