Joe Costello (Dublin Central, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I too raise the circumstances surrounding the closure of the most famous store in Ireland and the sacking of 460 employees, 130 of whom were employed directly with the remainder employed by concession holders. I am very concerned at the manner in which this closure took place. A company came in, made a sale to another company which then divided its purchase into two legal entities, with a 100% profit being made on one entity and the other going straight into liquidation. This all took place in very secretive circumstances and would have required collusion over a period of months to bring about that legal course of action. It involved both manipulation and exploitation. There was a total lack of concern for the loyal workforce who had provided great service to Clerys for many years.

This matter must be addressed and redressed in a robust fashion. The Tánaiste has already dealt with the first aspect of it, namely, the workers. She has met the workers, along with the Minister of State at the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, Deputy Nash. There has also been engagement with the liquidators and the trade unions representing the workers, including SIPTU and Mandate. The Minister made a team available today in Liberty Hall to deal with the entitlements of the workforce. All that is absolutely essential and is being done expeditiously. The second aspect of this is that we must take whatever steps are necessary to rebalance company law in order that such ruthless vulture capital transactions cannot take place in the future. Clearly the law at present is heavily weighted in favour of the business and employer and leaves the workforce entirely vulnerable.

I note that the Taoiseach has the Minister of State, Deputy Nash, to provide a report to him and I hope that will be done in a very timely fashion. I also hope that any report on dealing with these abominable transactions which were carried out in such an underhand fashion will be forwarded to the company law review group. I also hope that all this will be done expeditiously in order that whatever measures are needed to ensure it does not happen again will be put in place urgently.

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