Eugene Murphy (Roscommon-Galway, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Some weeks ago we had a crisis in my part of the country when 78 seasonal workers in Bord na Móna were laid off at the Mount Dillon works in Lanesboro. Many of those workers have been left throughout the summer without any social welfare payments. Some of them got their payments yesterday, after nine weeks. The Taoiseach can imagine any worker left without a weeks' wages and, knowing some of those families, I can assure him some of them had to go without this summer. Some had to borrow money for family members. This is a disgraceful situation. I do not expect the Taoiseach to have the knowledge about Mount Dillon today but I ask him to ensure that, in a crisis like this where temporary workers are laid off, they do not have to wait eight or ten weeks for social welfare payments. It is simply not right and is morally wrong. We should correct it in this House.

See this speech in context