Patrick Nulty (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I commend my constituency colleague in Dublin West, Deputy Joe Higgins, for tabling this motion. One hundred years ago Dublin was a place of poverty. There was a housing crisis and malnutrition and overcrowding were the daily reality. The State did little or nothing to alleviate the conditions for workers. This year we recall that struggle in 1913 where Irish trade unionists and workers commemorate the courage and vision of working people in that year, at a time when again we face a crisis and a difficult challenge.

A full 100 years on from the 1913 Lock-out, austerity policies are hitting the poorest and most vulnerable hardest. There are renewed and sustained attacks on workers. Their right to collective bargaining through a trade union is still not recognised. In that context, I ask the Minister of State, Deputy John Perry, when Ireland will ratify the convention to protect domestic workers, something it still fails to do. Will he remind his colleagues at the Cabinet table that Ireland has given a commitment to legislate to give effect to the European Court of Human Rights ruling on the right to collective bargaining through a trade union? This is set out clearly in the programme for Government but several times when I have raised this matter with the Taoiseach and the Tánaiste on the Order of Business, the response I have been given was a mixture of lack of interest and flippancy about an essential piece of industrial relations legislation required in this country. Where does the Government stand on the commitments given to the International Labour Organisation which is meeting this week, attended by ICTU vice-president John Douglas and others? It has committed that Ireland will bring its laws in line with the ILO conventions and will not continue to undermine the conditions of workers.

Let us examine the context of modern Ireland. Although many things have changed in our society during the past 100 years, regrettably the deep-rooted inequalities remain. In 2011 Crédit Suisse showed that the richest 1% in our society owns more than 25% of our nation's wealth and the richest 10% owns more than 60%. Income distribution has become more unequal than it was in 1980. Social Justice Ireland notes that since 2008, 100,000 more of our fellow citizens are at risk of poverty. Housing waiting lists have soared to a point where almost 100,000 households are waiting for a home, while in 2008 the number was only 56,000. Why is there no attempt to have a stimulus plan to build and provide social housing for people? Any public representative in this House knows there is a crisis in housing need in this country but the political establishment refuses even to acknowledge or debate this.

Some 78% of people waiting for social housing have incomes of less than €15,000 per annum. One in four of our fellow citizens has literacy difficulties, compared to just 3% in Sweden. Let us not forget the shameful abolition of the Combat Poverty Agency by the previous Fianna Fáil Administration in order to prevent analysis and discussion about poverty and inequality.

The motion uses the language of betrayal. I prefer to use a different type of language because I believe in the politics of persuasion. A more equal society is in the interest of everybody and we can convince everybody to support progressive policies. I am reminded of the words of Martin Luther King, who said: "Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred."

No progressive Member of this House has a mandate to cut child benefit, respite care grants, the fuel allowance, maternity leave or the Sunday premium for security and other workers. Where were these policies in the election manifestos? The former British Labour Party MP, Tony Benn, said:

It's the same each time with progress. First they ignore you, then they say you're mad, then dangerous, then there's a pause and then you can't find anyone who disagrees with you.

This Government has a majority in this House. Fine Gael and those who support it will defeat this motion, just as they defeated many progressive proposals. Let us be clear, however, that despite five years of austerity, working people will not be defeated. The last word has not been spoken. Things will change and we will continue to fight relentlessly for an Ireland of equals, based on the principles of progressive democratic socialism. That is the mandate I was given by the people and I will continue to represent them in this way until we overcome the obstacles to building a society based on equality and justice. I support the motion.

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