Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Debenhams was not the first offender in using such tactical insolvencies and the loopholes the Taoiseach has described. Everyone will recall Clerys and its workers and will remember that at that time, the political class said it must never happen again. Guess what? It has happened again and will happen again, time after time, both the retail sector and elsewhere, unless those loopholes are closed. The time for reviewing is over and the time for action is now. When will the law be changed to protect workers in these situations?

The Taoiseach says the workers and all parties should get back around the table. What table? To what table do the liquidator, the company, the workers and their union return? Can the Taoiseach set that out? Engagement is essential. The industrial relations machinery of the State has run its course. That is over and we are dealing with a deeply unjust situation in which workers who have given decades of their lives and of service have been thrown on the scrapheap by Debenhams. The Taoiseach has to intervene with the liquidator and others and tell them to return to the table. What table will that be?

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