Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for his reply. These concerns arise as a result of the extreme pressure on harbour workers, a couple of whom are in the Visitors Gallery today. For example, four of the nine harbour policemen have been put on one week a month temporary lay-off for an indefinite period because the company says it does not have the money to pay them, which is a major hit for those concerned and for the amenity in terms of safety. It is incredible that the company does not have the money to pay the workers who protect the harbour and users of it while a director who is known to have been overpaid expenses, which were supposed to have been returned - I am not sure if they have been repaid - and does not attend meetings continues to receive directors' fees, expenses and so on. Earlier we discussed the payment of obscenely high and unjustifiable salaries to people at the top. It appears as though there is one law for directors and executives and another for low to middle paid workers who are being hit severely by way of temporary lay-off. Also, the superintendent of the harbour has been suspended in what appears to be a deepening rift between management and the workforce in the harbour.

I ask that the Minister investigate these matters and try to bring fairness to bear, thus ending the situation whereby people at the top are paid large amounts of money for doing very little while front line workers, who ensure the harbour functions in the interests of the public, are hammered in an unacceptable manner.

See this speech in context