Joe Higgins (Dublin West, Socialist Party) | Oireachtas source

The Taoiseach said the Government does not intend to go back to the previous model of social partnership. Social partnership was never more than a fraudulent concept by which big business and financiers were allowed rip-roaring profits - the fruits of speculation. It allowed for the gouging of young people on the property market but held wages to restrained limits. It was not a partnership in any sense.

It is telling that the Taoiseach formally met with the Irish Farmers Association, which represents the largest farmers and ranchers, the Irish Business and Employers Confederation, which represents the largest businesses, and the Construction Industry Federation, which represents the largest developers and construction bosses. Some members of these organisations have regular access to the Taoiseach’s office through the IFSC’s Clearing House Group. However, he never met the workers, the victims of the policies that he and the Labour Party have imposed for the past three years.

The Taoiseach might remember we are commemorating the centenary of the 1913 Lock-out when brave working men and women stood and fought for the rights of workers to organise and have a decent life. They were starved, abused, batoned and bullied by the organised employers, the police, the authorities and the big business media of the day, Independent Newspapers. Does the Taoiseach find it acceptable that 100 years later, employers are still not obliged to recognise a trade union in the workplace if the workers want a union to negotiate on their behalf? Does he intend to bring in a trade union recognition Bill? What is his schedule for this?

Does the Taoiseach find it acceptable that businesses that receive considerable amounts of money from public bodies, funded by the taxpayer, can routinely ignore the structured machinery of negotiation, such as the Labour Court, when workers or their representatives ask that they attend hearings on particular cases and grievances? For example, a group of workers at Milne Foods in Birr, County Offaly, have been undergoing a series of one-day strike actions for a considerable period, seeking decent wages and conditions. Workers in the plant who are parents and who have five, six and seven years of experience are still on the minimum wage or on wages marginally above it, yet this employer-----

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