Martin Browne (Tipperary, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I congratulate Deputy Joan Collins for tabling this motion which is about justice and fairness for those who have, through no fault of their own, been impacted by the Covid-19 crisis. When any business shuts down it is the workers' families who suffer but the reasons for businesses closing their doors are varied. There are questions over the purpose of the closure of Debenhams. There is a history of this type of action that impacts workers the most. For some, a workforce is just entries on a spreadsheet, numbers to move around a screen until they fit with the desired profit margin of the company concerned. Unfortunately this seems to be the case with the matter we are discussing today and we have also seen it with TalkTalk, Clerys and a number of others in recent times. There seems to be an ongoing failure of the authorities to address the ability of large companies to exploit loopholes at the expense of the average person but it is always the worker who suffers. We now have workers who remain in a precarious situation while Debenhams exploits the system. It is claiming that stock in Irish stores is its own and attempting to leave the workers with nothing other than their statutory entitlements, to be provided from the State's purse. This is despite the collective agreement reached by the Mandate union with Debenhams that stated that if workers were made redundant they would receive four weeks pay per year of service. The Taoiseach himself recently spoke some fine words about the contemptible way in which the workers were treated but that is as far as he went; just another soundbite from our Taoiseach. The Government has stood by while the workers demonstrate on the streets for their entitlements to be realised and for some notice to be taken by those in power. As Deputy Buckley said, that is us in here. Unfortunately that was not forthcoming and we find ourselves here today supporting a motion quite rightly tabled by Solidarity-People Before Profit. Sinn Féin has given the workers its staunch support throughout this process and as such we will be supporting this motion which demands, among other measures, that the State forgo its priority status as a creditor and for the liquidator to use those funds to pay the enhanced redundancy payments agreed between Debenhams workers and the company. It also seeks to ensure that where agreements for enhanced redundancies have been negotiated with workers, those are honoured as preferential creditors in any subsequent liquidation process. This motion calls for a fundamental change in how companies are allowed to operate to prevent them from leaving their workers high and dry. Sinn Féin will be supporting this motion. It is outrageous that we are in a situation whereby Members of this House are left with no alternative but to table such a motion because those who could change the system choose not to do so, namely, Members on the Government benches.

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