Dessie Ellis (Dublin North West, Sinn Fein)

Ba mhaith liom tacaíocht a thabhairt don Bhille seo. Today is May Day, a day when workers, trade unionists and those who struggle for a better world for ordinary people remember the fights of the past, the victories, the losses, the revolutions and the counter-revolutions, the great men and the great women. It is a day we in Sinn Féin mark and a day that always causes me to pause and think of the great things that have been achieved by working people and the many things we have yet to wrestle from those who seek to hold us back from human progress in order that they can pursue profit and power.

Today those people are often referred to as the 1%. They are those who are €4.1 billion better off this year in Ireland, while others struggle to pay their bills and have less than €100 at the end of the month. They are backed up by the servile political elite. As Connolly, Ireland's greatest leader of working people, said, Ireland is nothing without its people. Its people are the working people who do not earn massive wages or dodge paying their fair share. Nothing speaks more to the need to protect our people than the situation we see throughout the country, where workers who lose their jobs are left with nothing to show for their service and often great loyalty to their place of employment. Many employers seek to take advantage in the bad times of the temporary docility of Irish workers, and cast out these workers with little more than a text message or an e-mail. They have awoken the Irish worker and this spirit of fighting back can be seen in the resolve of the workers at La Senza, Game, Lagan Brick and Vita Cortex. Their fight is the fight of workers throughout Ireland, who know that they could be next. The solidarity shown to these workers' sit-ins is undeniable evidence of this.

The State must act to prevent a situation where workers cannot get the redundancy they deserve from their former employers. Their mistreatment must not be continued further by the actions of a State which at this moment is telling them that they are not worth anything, their hard work is not appreciated and they should never feel secure. Our modest demand this evening is not asking the earth, but simply some redress for some workers who are not in a position to avail of their deserved redundancy from their former employers and who must turn to the State. This Bill will not address all the issues relating to workers' rights and redundancy but we believe it is an important Bill designed to protect and enhance the rights of some workers experiencing great difficulty at this time. The Labour Party proposed some similarly motivated measures last September in the Seanad. It was passed but nothing has come of it, in spite of tacit support from the Minister, Deputy Bruton.

Workers are being denied the entitlements they have won, and the State must act to make available redundancy payments to which they are entitled, as well as laying down requirements that they will not be left to fend for themselves for a protracted period while a decision is being made. This is a simple, modest Bill to help some workers who are being left in the lurch due to a failure to legislate to protect them in these changing times. I commend it to the House and I ask the Labour Party to consider its heritage, those oft mentioned Labour values, and vote for this motion to support workers on this international day of solidarity and re-dedication to the cause of progress and humanity.

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