Maurice Quinlivan (Limerick City, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Sinn Féin welcomes this move to remove the legislative prohibition on allowing full access for members of An Garda Síochána to the State's workplaces dispute resolution bodies, namely, the Workplace Relations Commission and the Labour Court. Sinn Féin introduced a Bill in April 2017 which would have allowed the representative associations of An Garda Síochána and the Defence Forces to reconstitute themselves as trade unions if they wished. The Bill would also have given gardaí and members of the Defence Forces full access to the State’s industrial relations mechanisms while making it illegal for reasons of public safety and national security for them to engage strike action.

I am glad the Minister agrees with Sinn Féin in this regard but it is a shame that members of the Defence Forces will be excluded from the scope of the measure. The Sinn Féin Report Stage amendment, which was, unfortunately, ruled out of order in the past couple of hours, aimed to change the definition of “worker” contained in section 8 of the Industrial Relations Act 1990 by deleting the words “but not including a member of the Defence Forces and of An Garda Síochána”. We believe members of the Garda and the Defence Forces should be treated as employees when it comes to industrial relations issues. They should have access to the Workplace Relations Commission to ensure they have a venue to bring employment related complaints.

Defence Forces personnel are the worst paid workers in the public service, with many of them relying on working family payments to make ends meet. Members see a long-term career in the Defence Forces as unsustainable and unviable. In order to provide for their families, they are leaving the forces in droves. The Government must start listening to their concerns. It must recognise members of the Defence Forces are employees and entitled to the same protections as every other worker. This move would be particularly important as we have heard just this week from a retired general officer of the Defence Forces that the Government is treating them with contempt and disdain. This is simply not good enough. This is particularly relevant to many people in my constituency who are based Sarsfield Barracks in Limerick city.

Although this move to provide greater workers' rights to gardaí is welcome, members of the Defence Forces must not be left behind. We believe members of the Defence Forces, as employees, should also have access to the Workplace Relations Commission where employment grievances can be mediated and resolved. It was a shame, therefore, that the amendment was ruled out of order, as were other amendments put down on Committee Stage by Sinn Féin and Solidarity–People Before Profit.

Will the Minister review and support Sinn Féin's Trade Union (Garda Síochána and the Defence Forces) Bill 2017 which seeks to give members of An Garda Síochána and the Defence Forces greater rights as workers?

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