Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I want to correct some of the misinformation that was presented by Deputy Niall Collins earlier. Sinn Féin is in favour of workers and the rights of workers. Fianna Fáil is as anti-worker today as it was when it cut the minimum wage. I am proud to be the daughter of a trade union organiser. I worked as a trade union organiser for many years. The Government is seeking to deny access to the workplace to me and people exactly like me. There is nothing intimidating or threatening about a union organiser seeking to meet her members in their workplace. It happens in schools throughout the country every day of the week. The trade union movement does not carry out its work to put employers out of business. It would be ridiculous to do so. If there were no employers, there would be no workers and no trade unions. We seek to improve the terms and conditions of the people we represent. That is exactly what this Bill is about. It seeks to give trade union officials access to workers - their own members - in the places where they work. There is nothing massively revolutionary about it. In fact, it should be a basic right.

Deputy Kelly spoke about the Labour Party's record when it was in government. If he had stayed around long enough, he would have heard me telling the House that when I was a trade union organiser during that period, the most requested form in every workplace was the one to ensure none of the workers' union dues went to the Labour Party. The last time we discussed workers' rights in the House, I said that the Minister, Deputy Mitchell O'Connor, must have lived a charmed life.

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