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

It is the final day of this Dáil session before the summer recess and we are discussing changes to the Companies Act, which is clearly a top priority for the Minister and the Government. I do not have any issue with these changes being put through the House quickly but they stand in stark contrast to the foot-dragging in changes that must be made to legislation to protect worker interests, including interests in positions of company liquidation.

It is long overdue for legislation to be passed through the House to make workers priority creditors, top of the list and first in the pecking order in cases of company liquidation. Such legislation should ban businesses from using tactical insolvency by putting all the losses into one side of a company that has been split, shutting it down and keeping the assets in other ways for the company. The Clerys case indicated that change was required and five years on, Debenhams workers also need those changes. What do we have from the Government? Nothing. Even this Act, which deals with matters arising because of the Covid-19 pandemic, could have included a proposal banning the types of liquidation I describe during cases of lockdown but such a provision is absent.

The programme for Government indicates there will be a review of these matters but the Duffy Cahill report has already been done. Its recommendations could and should have been speedily implemented before this summer recess. When will we see legislation arising from the report put before this Dáil?

The Minister of State met representatives of the Debenhams workers' union last Wednesday and undertook at the meeting to explore the possibility of improving the package currently on the table, which is the bare minimum statutory redundancy. We are eight days on from the meeting and I would appreciate it if the Minister of State could report to the House, for the benefit of those workers, on what progress, if any, he has made on this front over the course of the past week.

There has been much activity in Debenhams shops in the past 24 hours and overnight. For example, personnel from KPMG and others went into the shop in Limerick at 3 a.m. There are many indications that stock will be moved. The Minister of State should be very clear that these workers are determined and their resolve is very strong. Bank holiday weekend or none, no stock will be removed from those shops until there is a just settlement of four weeks of pay per year of service, at a minimum, for those workers.

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