Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I want to focus on one specific question to the new Minister. It is an issue that is of grave concern to me. It has to do with programme D - An Equal and Inclusive Society (Civil Justice and Equality Pillar). I want to ask the Minister's views on a committee on combating racism that was set up by her predecessor. This committee is to report within three months and to complete its work within a year. I am sure we all wish it all the best. Its composition includes many people whom I would strongly welcome in terms of diversity and coming from various sections of society, as well as those with a track record of fighting racism and discrimination. I am, however, stunned by the inclusion of one representative from a global multinational company. Whatever that person's own particular individual record or ability is, they are there as a representative of firm. I find it quite shocking that we would appoint a member of a company to an anti-racism body when that company, quite frankly, has a very disturbing history. It has been the subject of multiple human rights campaigns against abuses and the shocking treatment of migrant workers and minorities in the institutions it runs.

The company to which I refer is Sodexo. It is one of the largest outsourcing companies in the UK. It offers a range of services based on over 100 professions, including on-site services such as school kitchens, privatised prisons, hospitals, and benefits and rewards services like childcare vouchers. It faces copious allegations of racism throughout its employment hierarchy. In 2005, Sodexo was forced to pay $80 million in compensation to thousands of black employees who claimed that they were excluded from promotions and segregated in the company by fellow workers. To mention a couple of other cases that ring alarm bells, in April last year an inquest found serious failures at a Sodexo-run prison in Peterborough in Britain. The inquest found that the failures there had contributed to the death of Annabella Landsberg, a 45 year old prisoner who was restrained by four officers and left for 21 hours alone on a prison floor. One campaigner in this case noted that in other cases in the British prison system - I am not implying anything about the Irish prison system, it is about the company that runs those prisons - "black women consistently die in contentious circumstances where there are serious concerns about their dehumanising treatment."

Other cases in medical and prison facilities run by Sodexo show that it relies heavily on migrant labour and, disproportionately, on female labour. There are huge question marks over the treatment of these workers. One report noted that it is reliant almost entirely on migrant women from the Philippines, Lithuania, Portugal, Sierra Leone and Brazil. These workers were excluded from the NHS pension scheme, paid less than the in-house staff and forbidden from using NHS canteens and facilities. Those are more recent examples of the behaviour of this company. I ask the Minister to examine this matter and consider it not just as a historical case. Clearly, the company has attempted to rebrand itself with a face of inclusion and diversity. A company that with a history of racism and exploitation that relies on migrant workers may well rebrand itself but it follows a corporate model that takes over key public services and seeks to run them on a for-profit basis. This business model, beneath the veneer of corporate responsibility and progressive sound bites, still rests on precarious, low-paid, mostly migrant women workers. It is not an ally in the fight against racism but is the very bedrock on which racism stands and breathes.

I ask the Minister to reconsider the suitability of this representative for the committee. We were promised in the recent discussions about direct provision and in the outcome of the Government formation discussions that we would see a move away from the for-profit system of direct provision. Why are we including a representative of a profit-driven company on a committee which is carrying out extremely sensitive and necessary work? I find it bizarre and unsettling. Sodexo has no place on this important group.

I also want to repeat the question about a matter we campaigned for and voted on in the previous Dáil regarding justice for Shane O'Farrell, which was to see an independent inquiry into the circumstances and aftermath of his death. Lucia O'Farrell would have met practically everybody in the previous Dáil, including everybody who is sitting here today, and campaigned very strongly for justice for her son. We voted that there would be an independent public inquiry and I have yet to receive an answer from the Taoiseach or the former Minister for Justice and Equality. I hope the new Minister will give us a clear answer on that issue and take this family out of the agony and anguish it is daily facing.

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