Martin Kenny (Sligo-Leitrim, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Again, we will be supporting the motion tonight. The reality is that we should not be here at all. That is very clear. There should not have been a Labour Court recommendation. The Government should have dealt with this in the very beginning. From the very outset, when the CE schemes were set up and the whole process was put in place, the supervisors and the people who worked on those schemes should have been provided with a pension. To say it goes back ten years is quite incorrect. It actually goes back much further than that because to bring it to the Labour Court the unions obviously had to have been advocating for some time and seeking justice for the CE supervisors and assistant supervisors. The reality is that if it goes back 15 years, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael share almost equal blame in respect of this issue. That needs to be acknowledged. The fact of the matter is that we have people in the Gallery looking for something which they should have gotten as a right as employees from the day they commenced their employment. They should not be coming here 15 or 20 years after starting work looking for it.

It is also the fact that we are in a situation where, as was mentioned earlier, there are people in government who have very great power in respect of this matter. The reality is that we have power on both sides of the Chamber this evening because we have a confidence and supply arrangement which keeps the Government in place. If there was this sense of outrage in respect of these particular workers, or indeed any other workers in this State, we would not be in this position today. We would not be coming here talking about very small numbers of workers who are trying to get their rights vindicated.

The Minister of State mentioned that resolving this issue would somehow or other open the floodgates and that there would be a whole other sector of workers in the community and voluntary sectors that would possibly be looking to get pensions because of it. The trade unions have been quite explicit and clear in this regard. The situation for the community employment workers is very clear and very specific. It is on those specific issues that this needs to be addressed. The Labour Court was very clear that this recommendation dealt with the CE supervisors and assistant supervisors. To reiterate the point made a few minutes ago, it is also clear to anyone who looks at this situation that community employment has been under attack and has been subject to cuts, revision, restructuring and everything else that could be found for the last ten to 15 years in order to put it into the ground and shift it to one side. That is a reality which the people in the Gallery, the people who are working on community employment schemes, and those trying to get on them up and down the length and breadth of the country are absolutely aware of. It is scandalous that this Government is refusing to vindicate the rights of these workers. It is a great shame not just on this Government but on previous Governments that we are here this evening at all.

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