Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Social Democrats for bringing forward this important motion. It is a very broad motion but it has sparked a very necessary conversation. When the Fianna Fáil Minister of State, Deputy Troy, took us through the greatest hits of the minimum wage, he left out a very important part, which is that the last time Fianna Fáil and the Green Party were in government together, they cut the minimum wage. When their backs were to the wall, as they would say, the first people thrown under the bus were low-paid workers. It is important that those parties which have any concern for workers' rights use their time in the Dáil Chamber to ensure we put those rights front and centre. We cannot have enough conversations, let alone too many, about the need for workers' rights to be protected.

I will focus my remarks on three specific issues referred to in the motion, namely, tactical insolvency, precarious employment and the striking down of sectoral employment orders. We know that the practice of tactical insolvency is happening. The Tánaiste and I discussed it in the Chamber earlier this week. Large companies with access to resources can use loopholes in the law to evade their responsibilities and treat their workers disgracefully. They have been doing this for quite a while. We only have to look at the litany of company closures, which include TalkTalk, Clerys, the Paris Bakery and La Senza, to see the evidence of it. Every single time this happened, the Government said it needed to do something to ensure it could not happen again. It is happening again with Debenhams. The good news is that Sinn Féin has already drawn up legislation to tackle this issue. That legislation, which we introduced during the last Dáil, was described by Fianna Fáil as worthy of support and was not opposed by Fine Gael. Our Bill is ready to go and I have sought leave to introduce it. I will be asking all parties to support it.

What is happening to the Debenhams workers is an absolute disgrace and it is not good enough for us simply to say that we need to make sure it does not happen again. It keeps happening because successive Governments facilitate it. It keeps happening because successive Governments have shrugged their shoulders, said we should do something about it but not actually followed up on it. The workers who find themselves in this situation deserve a bit more respect than that. As I said, the Bill we brought forward was not opposed. We must resolve to make sure it passes all Stages in this Dáil as quickly as possible.

I have said on the record of the Dáil that precarious employment destroys families and wrecks people's lives. People in precarious work never know from the end of one week to the start of the next whether they will be working, what hours they will be working, how much they will earn, how much childcare they will need and whether they will need transport to and from work. That situation destroys people's lives. The Minister of State, Deputy Troy, referred to the need for a work-life balance. It is hard not to laugh at that. For people in precarious employment, work-life balance is not even a pipe dream. They cannot even imagine what that would be like. We know there are hundreds of thousands of workers on these types of contracts but, yet again, the Government is shrugging it shoulders and nothing is being done about it. What these workers need is action.

I raised the issue of the striking down of sectoral employment orders with the Minister of State, Deputy English, last Tuesday in the Dáil. There is a very real need for action to be taken on this matter but the response from the Tánaiste when it was put to him was very telling. When I told him that action needed to be taken, he reminded me, although I did not need any reminding, that the workers who would ordinarily have been covered by the orders, who will turn up for work tomorrow or the next day or change employment, have the benefit of the National Minimum Wage Act. None of us in this House works for the minimum wage. I am sure that very few family members of the Minister of State, Deputy English, work for the minimum wage. For the Tánaiste to say that those workers have the benefit of the minimum wage legislation is to say they are entitled to the absolute minimum. This evening we have had a Fianna Fáil Minister of State come in here and eulogise the minimum wage. Workers deserve more than this. The minimum wage is a floor, not a target. The way Government members talk about it, one would think people were living it large on the minimum wage. They absolutely are not living it large, because the cost of living is out of control.

Workers need to know who is on their side, who will stand up for them and who has their back. This evening, every Deputy from every party, regardless of their previous record in or out of government, has an opportunity to stand with workers. I am proud to say that Sinn Féin will be supporting the motion. I commend the Social Democrats on bringing it forward.

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