Clare Daly (Dublin Fingal, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Collins for allowing me to share her time. It is indicative of the seriousness of this issue that we have had to fight for the space to speak today. It is absolutely critical and I support the launch this week of Mandate Trade Union's campaign on the secure hours better future charter. This campaign stresses the need for us as legislators to act now on the issue of banded hours contracts and not in a couple of months.

This issue came to the fore as a result of the heroic struggle of Dunnes Stores workers, in particular, in 2015. Other Deputies have alluded to the rise of insecure, temporary and low-paid work in this State. It has absolutely skyrocketed over the past decade. The share of work that is part-time work has increased from 17% to approximately 22%. The share of part-time work that is involuntary part-time work is 51%, compared to 24% before the crisis. In other words, people want more hours but they cannot get them. As a result, Ireland has the second-highest rate of under-employment in the EU, which is an absolutely damning statistic.

There is a direct correlation between the increase in casual employment and the rate of State subsidy to those in employment. We have the despicable spectacle of profitable companies like Dunnes Stores and Tesco seeing their share of wealth massively increase while taxpayers subsidise their wage bills. Some 21,800 families were in receipt of family income support in 2001, but this figure had increased to 50,000 by 2014. Similarly, the number of payments of jobseekers benefit to casual workers increased from 16,400 in 2001 to 65,600 in 2014. Public money which could be used to improve the social wage or the health, education and child care systems is being used to subsidise profitable companies at the expense of the taxpayer and, as other Deputies have said, at the expense of workers whose lives have been destroyed by precarious employment. It is incredibly stressful for such people because they cannot save, get credit or plan for the long or short terms. They cannot even get a night's sleep because they do not know what roster they will be on next week or how many hours' work they will get. They are having to contend with the stress of wondering whether they can pay the rent or the food bill or meet the cost of their children's school needs.

We have heard the stories from Dunnes Stores workers and others. It is fair to say that women workers, in particular, bear the brunt of this type of precarious employment. The main point we have to stress is that the committee has done the work and Deputy Cullinane has brought forward a very good baseline from which we can work. As an Opposition Deputy, he has to be mindful of issues like money messages. His Bill is a good piece of work. The committee has spent many hours working to improve that legislation. I emphasise that halting the progress of Deputy Cullinane's Bill would be an enormous setback for workers who need certainty in their contracts. It would be a particular blow for workers in Dunnes Stores, who will return to the Labour Court in February 2018 after a six-month suspension of their case. It would be incredibly cynical if we were to allow that to happen with no legislation in place to defend their position. The only way we can ensure they can get justice in the Labour Court is by proceeding with the committee's work and Deputy Cullinane's Bill. There is no other way.

A couple of weeks ago, media headlines suggested that the Taoiseach was about to tackle zero-hour and low-wage contracts by introducing a new Government Bill. It is a real indictment of the lack of a critical media in this State that there was no mention of the fact that this House, through Deputy Cullinane's Bill and the work of the all parties on the committee, including Government parties, had already made progress with a separate Bill to do precisely what the Government Bill supposedly intends to do. In fact, the Government's proposal will block the situation rather than helping it. We need to call it what it is. That is what the Government is trying to do here. I plead with the Government to support the work of the committee and to get behind the Bill that has already been introduced. Deputy Cullinane and the committee have said they are prepared to work to improve the Bill in question. That is the only way in which we can tackle the situation for workers now. It is imperative that we do so on behalf of the workers who are before the Labour Court. Even at this stage, I implore the Government to take Deputy Cullinane's Bill on board.

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