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

The Irish Congress of Trade Unions and the Mandate trade union recently made a proposal to the Government.

It was a proposal which had the potential to resolve the five-month long Debenhams dispute. The gist of it was one, increasing employer social insurance contributions and two, making a pool of money available to the State from which enhanced redundancy agreements could be honoured in cases of liquidation. It was suggested that were this to be agreed in principle, an advance payment of €10 million could be made from such a fund to meet the Debenhams workers' demand of two plus two, that is, four weeks per year of service. Yesterday afternoon in the Dáil, the Taoiseach himself poured cold water all over that proposal to resolve the Debenhams dispute. Today, the Minister of State has in effect done the same thing by putting down an amendment which tears the guts out of Deputy Joan Collins's motion. It states: "retrospective application of future legislation is highly problematic", thus pouring cold water over the proposal. Insult has been added to injury by neither of the senior Ministers involved coming into the House to debate this issue. Two conclusions arise from this. First, the Government is part of the problem here and is an obstacle to achieving a just settlement. Second, the workers now have no option but to escalate. I am confident that they will act appropriately and I strongly appeal to both the Mandate trade union and the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, ICTU, to respond to the Government's double rebuff by taking the gloves off and putting in place strong action in support of the Debenhams workers' struggle.

See this speech in context