Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Generally speaking, the Deputy is somebody who looks for the negative in almost everything. The people in Dunnes Stores who have gone on strike are vindicating their rights as Irish citizens to seek, through their union, proper terms and conditions of work, and fairness at work. Fairness at work is the hallmark of the industrial relations structure in this country, which will be enhanced by the collective bargaining legislation that will come before the Dáil. That will be an opportunity for the Deputy to put his money where his mouth is and actually support it when it comes before the Dáil. We will await the day, and we will see what he actually does. He tends to be somebody who has torrents and rivers of language but, as a legislator, he has very little to show for it. He should come in here and do the work on the collective bargaining legislation to enhance our industrial relations situation.

Going back to the current strike, there is a mechanism open, as the secretary general of that union has said, and he has advised on behalf of the workers he represents that the employer should actually enter a dialogue. I do not know if the Deputy is opposed to a dialogue with the employer. What the Labour Party has stood for since its foundation is to actually have a mechanism of dialogue so that workers do not have to endure strikes but that they have fair pay and fair conditions built in to their terms and conditions of work.

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