Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)

I welcome the opportunity to contribute to this debate. When asked yesterday if his Government would support this Bill ,the Taoiseach said "No", which hardly comes as a surprise. After all, protecting the most fundamental rights and expectations of workers has never been high on the agenda of the Fine Gael Party. It was left to the Minister of State, Deputy Sean Sherlock, to defend the position of the Government last night. Once again, it seems Fine Gael is setting the agenda while its Labour Party partners in government are relegated to the role of stepping in to back up the larger party. For reasons best known to himself, the Minister of State's point of reference in evaluating the merits of the Bill was the British Conservative Party. Sinn Féin's proposal seeks to extend the current notification period in respect of collective redundancies to bring it into line with provisions in the North. The Minister of State said last night that Britain is actively evaluating the relevance of the continued application of the 90 day provision. It can be no surprise to any of us that a Tory-led Government would seek to dismantle hard-won workers' rights.

I can only rationalise that it was in an effort to copperfasten his party's jump to the right that the Minister of State went on the say that the 30 day provision has served the State well and that neither employers nor employees have ever sought amendments to current legislation. I can only suggest that he take himself out of the confines of his cosy office in Leinster House once in a while and rub shoulders with the former workers of Waterford Crystal, TalkTalk, La Senza, Lagan Brick, Vita Cortex, Game and Wilson Publishing. If he cannot rise to that, he should at least have a word with his party colleagues in the Seanad. Only last September Labour Party Members in the Upper House brought forward a Private Members' Bill calling on the Government to act on the period of notification. Senator Ivana Bacik called for greater protections to be put in place to assist employees who face collective redundancy situations. She went on to propose that existing legislation be reviewed to provide for a longer notice period than 30 days. Her party colleague, Senator Marie Moloney, a former SIPTU official, observed that she had met many people who had encountered difficulties in claiming their redundancy payments and entitlements. She was of the view that a notice period of at least 60 days would allow people time to come to terms with the devastating news of the loss of their job and to investigate their entitlements. Like Senator Bacik, she called on the Government to consider introducing legislation to that end.

Several trade unions, including Mandate, have indicated their support for my party's Bill. Many employees, including those in TalkTalk, have called for an extension of the notification period, as provided for in the Bill. While the Labour Party Senators' Bill was limited to issues regarding redundancy rights and access to payments, at least they, unlike others of their Government colleagues, stepped up in response to the TalkTalk dispute. This Administration has done nothing to address the scandalous position in which too many workers have been left following collective redundancies. Instead of action, we have the Minister of State, Deputy Sherlock, sauntering into the Chamber, referring to the British Tories and telling us everything is A-okay. I challenge any Labour Party Minister to relay that message to workers who have experienced collective redundancy and, months and years later, are still awaiting their entitlements. I commend my colleague, Deputy Peadar Tóibín, on introducing this legislation and call on Members across the floor to support it. In particular, I appeal to Labour Party Deputies to do the right thing.

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