Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I will not rehearse the despicable treatment of more than 1,000 Debenhams workers by Debenhams. It has been well rehearsed in the House. I thank the Independent Group for tabling this motion. We also put forward a motion before the summer recess. All agree that what Debenhams has done to its workers is absolutely shocking, but what we must discuss is the unwillingness of the Government to do anything to rectify that injustice. The amendment from the Government is just an insult. It uses technicalities and jargon to hide from its responsibilities.

I will cut a long story short. The reason this and previous Governments did not legislate for the Duffy Cahill report and to close down the loopholes that allow Debenhams to treat workers in this despicable way is that company law is designed in such a way as to make it attractive for companies that wish to behave in this way. It is even linked to the way in which those same companies avoid paying tax. It is all about subsidiaries and hiding assets and profits so they do not have to pay tax and have no obligations to workers. That is how things are set up in this country. This and successive Governments did not want to do anything about it because, effectively, the IDA goes around the world and tells companies they should come to Ireland because they can get away with murder on tax and in how they treat workers. To cut a long story short, that is what is happening.

Then the Government hides behind nonsense. It claims that this is not the same as Clerys. It is not exactly the same, but there is a similar point in that Clerys also tried to hide the asset it had. It had a trading company and a property company. It used the same technique as Debenhams is using now, by taking over bits of the assets of the company and giving them to other businesses even though the real activity is here. The Government says it only has small bits of assets, or whatever the phrase is. There are assets of approximately €25 million, for a start. That is not small. It would cost approximately €10 million to give the workers the two plus two they deserve. Then one can go after the €25 million in assets. It is not true that nothing can be done. The liquidator offered them an insulting €1 million, but the fact that the liquidator could offer them €1 million proves that it can do it. If it can offer them €1 million, it can offer them €10 million against the assets. Let us not forget that in 2018 the online trading company, all from business done here, made approximately €30 million and the estimated figure at present is approximately €40 million.

There are plenty of assets if the Government is willing to do something about the accounting tricks these companies operate to hide their assets and then dump workers on the scrap heap. The Revenue Commissioners could do that. Let us also not forget an important point made by the workers. They have paid multiples of the €10 million they are seeking for justice in tax to the Revenue Commissioners over the ten, 20 or 30 years they have been working. They deserve some support from the Government now. It should step in, give them the two plus two and then chase the assets of Debenhams which we know exist.

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