Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Amendment No. 2 reads:

To delete the words “provide a clear legal entitlement to workers to full time work” and substitute the following:“provide a clear legal entitlement for workers to enable them to request extra hours.”

It was a mistake in 2011, and I said it at the time out of a certain proprietary interest, that the Government did not appoint a Minister of State for labour affairs to the Department. In fairness to the Minister of State, since he has come in, many issues on this agenda have been moved on. For the want of having someone to drive them on and someone who had an interest in the area, this would not have happened. The previous three years saw many issues sidelined or issues which were well under way during our time in Government, such as the reorganisation of the various employment bodies, progressed in the way they would have been. However, many of the issues with which we are dealing in this House tonight were sidelined or ignored. That is why we are where we are and that is why we are facing a genuine challenge to the volunteerist nature of labour relations in this country.

This challenge has been crystallised in the Dunnes Stores dispute and its refusal to engage with the machinery which has been superbly successful in this country for nigh over 60 years. Dunnes Stores is refusing to engage with its workers, who have contributed to the wealth and the growth of the company over many years. It refuses to show the workers respect and it refuses to respect the agreements that are in place in the company. In light of the intransigence of Dunnes Stores, the silence of the business community and business organisations and the failure to stand up for the Dunnes Stores workers is also worrying.

It is a pity Deputy Ó Snodaigh has left, but I have no difficulty in saying that the vast majority of Irish employers are decent.

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