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

I agree that we need to appeal the decision in this case and robustly defend the right of the workers concerned to sectoral employment agreements. I do not agree that this Government and its predecessors have done their best to defend workers' rights. The Lockout more than 100 years ago was all about trade union recognition and we still do not have that in this country. Several Bills were put before the previous Government, which ended up being delayed and never progressing through the legislative Stages as they should have. No doubt we will introduce similar Bills in this term.

Workers need the right to organise and defend themselves and they cannot consistently rely on the courts to uphold that right. I refute the Minister of State's claim that this and previous governments have always had the interests of workers at heart. We need to look again at the Duffy Cahill report in view of what has gone on at Debenhams. What happened in that case will repeat itself in other cases. We need to consider giving workers the ability to organise and trade unions the ability to access workplaces such as meat plants where there are contentious issues. Construction sites are notoriously bad for bogus self-employment, precarious working conditions and low pay. All of those practices must be addressed. That will require a commitment from the Government to introduce robust legislation that will ensure workers can organise and defend themselves instead of having to rely on the courts to uphold that right.

See this speech in context