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

I welcome the opportunity to address the motion and talk about our amendment. I welcome all the workers to the House. It is only because of their determination to take some action that we are discussing this today. Standing up for oneself is crucial in this day and age and it is fundamental to getting change.

Workers have been left behind to a huge degree in this so-called recovery. In the recovery, we have seen profits, economic growth and property prices rising but the share of the national wealth that was taken from workers and given over to employers and profits has not been restored to those workers, in particular in the case of public sector workers. Further down the pecking order, the section 39 workers are those who have been penalised the most. It is no accident that we have seen an extraordinary increase in precarious contracts in all of the sectors, with zero hours, low hours and minimum pay rates being applied. There is a war on workers in this country and a war on wages, and in this war the Government has supported the employers and the wealthy. I am shocked to hear the Minister, a former trade union activist, say it is too complicated to restore the pay of these workers. If it was too complicated to restore it, how come it was not complicated to cut it in the first place? I do not believe his priority should be getting profits back to where they were in 2008. It should be rather about getting services and workers' rights back and restoring pay levels these workers absolutely need. This injustice will lead to industrial action in which we will fully support the workers.

I am sure the irony of those on all sides of this House, including those in power at the moment and those who were in power in the previous Government, who brought in the FEMPI legislation, falling over themselves to support section 39 workers will not be lost on those workers. The workers can only rely on themselves to get change.

If I were them, I would not be trusting any element of the political class to deliver on their behalf. There is a force they can rely on, namely, the force of their own power and their own ability to make the Government listen to them and ensure that the restoration happens. It will not happen by platitudes from the Minister of State's side of the House.

There is a connection between the crisis in our health services and the fact that we have section 38 and section 39 workers, who provide vital public services in disability, mental health and cancer treatment. These vital services are, in the main, provided by charitable organisations stemming from the legacy of Catholic charities dominating the health service. The last section of our amendment calls for all section 39 workers to be fully integrated into the public service and to have the same rights and entitlements bestowed on them, including pension rights, public service comparators and the full restoration of FEMPI cuts. We cannot continue to deliver services in a society that treats these workers differently and in which these services are delivered differently and largely depend on charity for their funding.

I know people in the community sector, as I am sure does the Minister of State, who are told that although they should restore the FEMPI pay cuts to themselves as has been directed by the Minister for Finance, they will not be getting the money to do it and will have to cut some of their services. We cannot continue to allow that happen, nor can we continue to allow the workers be penalised. The workers do not accept the argument that it is complicated to restore their pay or that there are all sorts of machinations that have to be considered. We commend our amendment to the House and fully support the action the workers are about to take. It can only be avoided if their pay is fully restored by the Government between now and the date of strike action.

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