Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I want to have a go at the Minister because I am a member of the committee which deals with issues that are the responsibility of her Department. On each occasion that an issue relating to workers' rights arises or when discrimination against workers comes to the fore, regardless of whether it is in an FDI company, the Minister always finds fancy language to use when washing her hands of any responsibility for jobs. She is the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation. When we refer to jobs, we do not mean jobs at any price. What we are talking about are good, decent jobs for the decent people who live in this country and who we are trying to represent.

The Minister and Fianna Fáil seem to think that we live in this bubble. In a way, the Dáil is a bubble in which there is a belief that somehow we are all in this together. There are those who support FDI companies, there are Fianna Fáilers, Fine Gaelers, the left and those who represent the workers and there is a belief that we all share the same agenda and are pursing the same issues. We do not share the same agenda as FDI companies, employers such as Tesco, De Beers Industrial Diamonds in Clare and other employers that will run down workers' rights, issue them with if-and-when contracts, as Bus Éireann is trying to do at present, undermine their existing contracts and try to break the law, as the bosses in Tesco are doing. The Minister should have the latter in her office for breaking contract law, which is what they are doing. They are breaching the legislation. Those workers have contracts and they cannot be taken from them until they agree to a change in the terms. The Minister, who has responsibility for jobs, has got to answer in respect of that matter.

Fianna Fáil has the biggest cheek. It is the party that told us in the 1930s that labour had to wait, that we could deal with the issue of workers' rights and equality for ordinary people and that we had to look after the national question. However, it did not do that. It neither looked after the national question nor did it look after workers, yet its members put on the red shirt when it suits them and go down to the Luas pickets or across to the Tesco pickets and pretend that they are on the side of the working people. At least the Minister wears her blue shirt and we can see her true colours. The Fianna Fáil guys are like chameleons and change their colours all the time.

I say to workers outside this House that there is a big test coming down the tracks for both Irish workers and workers who are not from Ireland but who work in this country. That test is to do with the Tesco strike. It is a big test for trade unionism, the right to organise and the right to be represented. We have to get 100% behind those on the picket lines. I call for people across the country to participate in mass protests at 12 noon on Saturday afternoon at every Tesco store in this country on which there is a picket. I ask them to support the workers, help them to finance their solidarity fund and ensure that they can win this battle. It is not just their battle, it is everyone's battle. It is a battle against the type of employment offered by a company such as Tesco that can made €250 million in profits each year in this country, which it refers to as "Treasure Ireland". That is the name the British bosses put on Tesco stores in this country.

It is outrageous that we have a Government and a so-called Opposition that will say diddly-squat about it and pretend that they are all things to all men. Ultimately, they represent one class interest in this country, namely, that of the boss class. They do not give a damn about workers' rights. They will sell our souls, not just their own, for so-called FDI. However, the game is up in that regard as a result of Brexit and Trump. The game is up on their low-tax economy and they had better wake up to the fact that there is such a thing as worker solidarity in this country.

6 o’clock

We will ensure, along with the Tesco strikers, the Bus Éireann strikers and all those being exploited outside of the House, that this voice is heard and this House is forced to legislate for it. I welcome the legislation. Well done to Sinn Féin.

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