Richard O'Donoghue (Limerick County, Independent) | Oireachtas source

When I grew up in Limerick, at the time Roches Stores had a unit there. I remember as a young lad that the first escalator in Limerick was in Roches Stores. It was a treat to go in and to go up and down this escalator, as it was the first one. Roches Stores ceased business and Debenhams took over. Debenhams workers, some of whom were also Roches Stores workers, had as much as 40 years of service to Limerick. All they got was a text sent by Debenhams, saying thanks for all their help and that it would not be coming back after the pandemic. That is what Debenhams thought of 40 years of service by Limerick people supporting Debenhams in Limerick.

At the moment, around the country, there is €50 million worth of stock in Debenhams stores. To give the Debenhams workers two weeks of redundancy pay would cost €13.5 million, not to mention that there was €50 million in the Debenhams Ireland account the day after it sent this text, and it has just disappeared into a UK account. It had the money to pay the workers their redundancy. When Roches Stores was there, it offered six weeks per year to Roches Stores workers. When Debenhams took over, it was to honour this, but the Debenhams workers knew and they went back to Debenhams to say they would take fewer weeks if Debenhams would work with them and give them their redundancy. Debenhams did the same thing that it did to the Government and all the people of Ireland. It stuck up the two fingers to Irish people.

Social media is a powerful thing and we should be using it to contact everyone that we know in the UK and in Ireland and, like Deputy Matt Shanahan said, let us stop Debenhams from making dirt out of all Irish workers after the service they gave. Let us go worldwide and hit Debenhams online to let it know that the Irish people will stand up for the Debenhams workers. They had been on picket lines for 100 days up to last weekend and I spoke to Debenhams workers today. They are going to continue to stand there. It is now time that Ireland stands with the Debenhams workers and for Limerick to stand with them. Let us start something on social media to let Debenhams know that Limerick will not take it and that Ireland will not take it.

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