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

When Clerys closed without paying a penny to long-standing workers, the Dáil said that would never again be allowed to happen. It is happening again. It is happening on the Minister's watch. It is happening at Debenhams and more than four times as many workers are involved in this case.

Debenhams closed in early April. Liquidators were appointed by the High Court, namely, KPMG. I met the liquidators earlier. The 30-day consultation period is very nearly up and KPMG has informed the unions that it does not intend to extend the consultation period and that it intends to issue redundancy notices at the start of next week, the week beginning Monday, 18 May. The Mandate trade union has asked that they extend the period. The union is balloting for industrial action over the company's failure to negotiate a redundancy package. The result of the ballot will be known at the start of next week.

There are 1,400 workers directly employed in the company and a further 600 work in the concession stands in the stores. The cost to the State of paying the two-week statutory minimum redundancy, one week's wages in lieu, the unpaid holiday time and, let us say, nine months' jobseeker's benefit to each of those workers would be more than €25 million, and that is not even counting the lost tax revenue.

Let us take into account some facts. The Debenhams workers in Henry Street in Dublin have contacted in writing the landlord of the Henry Street premises, who is also the landlord of the Debenhams premises in Patrick Street in Cork and asked if he would be prepared to negotiate a rent reduction.

He has not given a commitment that there would be a rent reduction but has said that he is open to discussions about the possibility of one. It makes business sense from his point of view. It is better to have an open premises from which one receives at least some rent than a closed premises from which one receives none.

Of the 11 shops in this State, three made a profit last year. Online business from Ireland is profitable. If four of the 11 stores made losses last year, these losses were very much at the lower end of things. The KPMG affidavit to the High Court valued the stock at £12 million for 1.239 million items. I asked whether this was cost price or retail price. It was cost price. What would the retail price be? At €20 per item of stock, which is a very conservative estimate, it would yield €25 million. It could, in fact, yield significantly more as I believe the average price would be more than €20. This is money that could, and should, be used to save jobs. At the very least, this money could be used to fund a decent redundancy package for those workers.

I asked the liquidator whether he had received a request to discuss these issues from the Minister or her Department. He said he had received no such request and that no meeting had taken place. It seems that the Minister is standing idly by while 1,400 direct jobs, or 2,000 jobs if one includes both direct and indirect jobs, go down the Swanee. Is the Minister prepared to urgently contact the liquidator tomorrow to seek an extension to the consultation period in order to allow time to explore these issues? Is she prepared to request a meeting with the liquidator to explore these issues?

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