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

I remind the Tánaiste that the headline from the report I mentioned is not that this State ranks well but rather it ranks 25th of 33 OECD countries in a table illustrating overall female economic empowerment.

This is the startling fact.

The Tánaiste has just said the good news is that people have jobs, any kind of a job. Not if they are Tesco workers on pre-1996 contracts, most of whom are women. Their contracts have been arbitrarily torn up by the Tesco bosses, which is breaking the law. Will the Minister for Justice and Equality bring the Tesco bosses in here and tell them they cannot break contract law and that given that she is in charge of legislation, they are not going to rip up legislation under her nose? Will she defend those workers who are out on the picket line daily, in lashing rain, standing steadfast in solidarity with those 250 people, mainly women, who are being discriminated against? Again, I call on everybody who gives a damn about justice, equality and solidarity to get down to the picket lines at Tesco on Saturday at 12 noon to support the workers and insist that Tesco will not get away with breaking the law, as it is doing, on the Minister's watch.

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