Mick Barry (Cork North Central, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

I start by offering solidarity and my sympathies to the families and friends of those who have lost loved ones. I offer sympathy also to all of those who are sick, and solidarity to workers on the front line.

I will direct my more health-specific questions to the Minister for Health later today. The main points I wish to raise now relate to the crisis, the question of jobs and the approach. Debenhams has shut stores, put more than 2,000 workers onto the dole and now wants to flee the country without paying a single cent in redundancy pay to those workers. This issue is not just for Debenhams workers now. It is a test case for how workers in society are treated and for how workers in the retail sector are treated. Retail Ireland has said that 110,000 jobs are on the line now due to the crisis. We have already seen the closure of Oasis, Warehouse and Laura Ashley. How the Debenhams workers are treated very much sets a benchmark. I believe the State could and should intervene to try to save the 2,000 jobs. The State has a stake in Bank of Ireland, which is part of the consortium that shut Debenhams down. That stake should be used to try to reverse the decision to close. At the very least the State has a responsibility to ensure that Debenhams is not allowed to abandon these workers totally. The State should ensure there is a moratorium on company liquidations at least until such time as the lockdown is lifted. In taking that action the State could prevent the High Court from appointing a liquidator next week and help prevent absolving the company of its responsibilities to the staff. This company still runs an online business and still hopes to reopen the majority of its stores in the UK. Its representatives should meet with the representatives of the workers and, at the very least, pay a decent redundancy package from the company's profits and resources.

I want to ask the Taoiseach about the use of emergency powers by gardaí to disperse a disciplined, socially distanced protest by Debenhams' workers in Henry Street, Dublin on Tuesday. Not only did gardaí instruct the workers to disperse and to take down the signs, which they have asked me to hold up here today as they were refused the right to hold up this sign on Tuesday, the workers were threatened with arrest and threatened with being put into the back of a Garda van. They were escorted to their Luas and bus stops by the gardaí and the gardaí instructed a trade union shop steward to desist from conducting an interview - well away from the store - with a journalist. I understand that the Irish Council for Civil Liberties will publish an article this afternoon in the wake of Tuesday's events. The article will contain the following words:

The ability to demonstrate and raise a collective voice is the cornerstone of a democracy. The right to protest, therefore, must be protected and facilitated to the greatest extent possible [and goes on to say] Specific legislation has been passed to allow for the right to protest in other countries and to continue to be exercised during the current lockdown.

I have three things to ask the Taoiseach. Will the Taoiseach comment on whether he would support the idea of a moratorium on company liquidations, at least until such time as the lockdown is ended? Will he also comment on the point that is raised in the article by the Irish Council for Civil Liberties?

Does the Taoiseach agree with the comments of the Fianna Fáil leader that the Debenhams workers' protest on Tuesday was responsible and involved social distancing and that protests of that type should be allowed to proceed as a basic democratic right?

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