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

I welcome the CE supervisors and assistant supervisors who are here with us. I commend them all for their patience. Nobody could dispute that they have indeed been very patient with this process. As a former trade union official, I would say to them that the Labour Court should be the end of the line. It is the last place to which one goes. It should be the place where, if one wins, one actually wins. These people won in the Labour Court. The difficulty for them is that the Fine Gael Government refuses to acknowledge the third party mechanisms of the State, as did Fianna Fáil and the Labour Party when previously in government. What does that say to every other worker outside of here? The Government is very fond of telling people to take disputes to the Labour Court. What should they do then? Should they win and wait ten years? This has been going on for the ten years since the Labour Court recommendation. The Minister of State said that "[a]ccordingly, any solution to this issue will require careful consideration". Well the Government has now had ten years. Has it considered it carefully enough? It is actually a very simple Labour Court recommendation. Sometimes they go on for pages, but this is a very simple one. These people have the right to a pension. I am acutely aware that every single one of us in here has a pension. That is all these people are here to get - a pension. They believe they are entitled to a pension. The Labour Court has backed that entitlement.

The Government should withdraw its disgraceful amendment. I echo what my colleagues have said, namely, it is a disgrace that the lead Minister is not here to answer the case. These people are only seeking a pension they won in the Labour Court, part of the third-party machinery of this State, to which the Minister of State and Members who sit on the benches opposite tell workers to go time and time again. The Minister of State is sending a message to workers in this State that the Labour Court can be disregarded, and that message will be heard by unscrupulous employers. Does he want to join them?

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