Clare Daly (Dublin Fingal, Independent) | Oireachtas source

This short Bill is designed to amend the current regulations around the establishment of co-operative societies and to make the administrative process involved that bit easier. To hear the Minister of State's response was disappointing, however. We are in danger of talking ourselves into complexities which do not exist. We are not asking for the reinvention of the wheel. The Society for Co-operative Studies in Ireland and the Centre for Co-operative Studies at UCC provided submissions to the Department's review in 2017, a review which has not been published yet. I do not see why it cannot be accommodated.

The Minister of State said there is no consensus in reducing the criteria from seven to three members required to register a society. In fact, the proposal is pretty much in line with what prevails in the rest of Europe. The other measures we have looked for, such as audit exemptions, are available to other types of companies but not to co-operative societies. We are not looking for anything special.

When I heard the Minister of State tell us not to be concerned because we love co-operatives and the Government will deal with them in a giant repealing Bill, it reminded me of the approach to the updating of the coroner legislation, which is rooted in the 1960s. We were told not to amend it just to deal with maternal deaths because the Government would amend the whole legislation. At that stage, it had been under review for 18 years. After three years of messing around, the Government decided to come with a stand-alone Bill to deal with the one aspect of maternal deaths, which, incidentally, we still have not passed. The response to this Bill is identical.

There is no conflict for the Government to pass this Bill. If it has a bigger project, then it can work away on it. Meanwhile, we can build on this legislation. While we can all claim we support co-ops, we lag far behind the UK and the rest of Europe in this area. There has to be a reason for that. Given our proud history, we are not ideologically opposed to co-operatives. It is because the mechanisms to support co-ops are not as robust in Ireland as they are in other jurisdictions.

The issue of co-ops is ideological. I make no apology for that. The model is resilient, democratic and based on values which provide good jobs and good services beneficial to communities. They can obviously range in size from large companies to a small crèche or an initiative dealing with housing waste, energy or football teams. It is a fact that because of the ideology and the basis on which they are established, there are much more likely to reinvest their profits into resources, training, education and so forth, rather than dealing with shareholder profits. There are far less likely to contribute to environmental damage in their locality. They tend to be much more locally based which in this era of sustainability is particularly important.

We make no apology about placing this issue in the context of the economic turmoil that prevailed over the past decade which revealed quite starkly for many the insecurity of the market. It was a situation which had devastating consequences for jobs as well as vital services in our communities, especially our rural communities. It is no coincidence that the impact of this same economic turmoil in areas of the UK and Europe which had co-ops was far less devastating. For example, in Spain, 24% of Spanish companies were forced to close but only 6% of co-ops. There is a value in co-ops. We know from research in Scotland that the co-operative model is much more likely to succeed in the first five years than other start-ups. Given the amount of money taxpayers pay to start-up businesses, many of which end up failing, the success rate is far better with co-ops. It makes sense all round that we would invest in these co-ops.

The Bill we are putting forward is to strengthen the legal framework to ensure the co-operative sector is given the opportunity to fulfil its potential, as well as ensuring good governance and transparency which are important. Our measures do not in any way conflict with that. As Deputies said earlier, there are many examples in Ireland such as the Dublin Food Co-op and the Quay Co-op in Cork. The latter was established in 1982 by great activists like Arthur Leahy. It is a progressive workplace and business with a restaurant, bakery and three shops providing good foods, sustainable products, recyclable packaging, green energy resources and so forth.

We know the model has been incredibly successful. It can be adapted into areas such as waste collection. In my area, we have conducted detailed surveys on this. After privatisation, bin services operate in a non-regulated environment with consequences such as fly tipping. Residents have the nightmare of emissions with different bin company trucks going up and down their roads every single day of the week. We have suggested running a pilot scheme where the residents would provide that service as a co-op and operate their own bin trucks.

In the past decade, we have seen many companies shutting down. In 2016, a survey of small and medium-sized enterprises showed that half had no succession plans at all. In many instances, such companies die with the owner. The co-op model fits in very much with that and where worker buy-outs can save the jobs which otherwise would be lost. It is particularly pertinent against the rise of precarious employment which presents significant insecurity for workers in so many aspects of their lives.

It is interesting that a report from the UK trade union and co-operative sectors has called for joint initiatives to sustain decent work for people and protect them from the poverty trap. The trade union co-op platform is trying to advance worker ownership and control in the service industry to avoid what has taken place because of the ideology of the market, neoliberalism, the race to the bottom, insecure contracts and people not knowing what is what.

Surveys have shown the impact of a working environment on people's mental health. There are very good studies even from America. There are many examples such as a simple bicycle shop where workers take ownership of it. They might be doing the same job they were doing previously but because they can set their own agenda and be responsible to themselves, it is an entirely different situation.

There is no reason for the Government not to accept the Bill. I am mindful that the Bill deals with workers' rights and many workers in this House were here very late last night and are here late tonight, and I know do not want to prolong things. It is unfortunate the House is sitting longer these nights because it is not good for our staff who are here either. I think the Government can accept the Bill. The Minister of State should rethink and let it move on.

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