Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE) | Oireachtas source

I listened to the Tánaiste talking about Debenhams workers on RTÉ Radio the other day. During the interview he basically acted as an attorney or lobbyist for Debenhams and made excuses for it. In particular, he said that the situation is not like that of Clerys because there are no assets, which outraged the workers and ignores the €25 million in stock in its Irish shops. He also spoke about it in the context of Britain and Ireland and ignored the close to €100 million in bank accounts in the UK. I thought to myself that this encapsulates the difference between Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael because every time the Taoiseach is asked about this, he uses a particular form of words. He says the workers have been very shoddily and badly treated. He expresses his sympathy with the workers and says it is terrible what Debenhams has done. The Tánaiste, on the other hand, expresses no sympathy for the workers and advocates for Debenhams. That is as much as the difference is because the bottom line is that neither of them does anything to support the workers or force Debenhams to pay up. That is encapsulated in the Government's amendment. It has the same line dismissing the existence of assets of Debenhams and now the Government is walking away. The impression the Taoiseach has given over the past number of months is that this would not be happening if we had only implemented the Duffy Cahill report, but unfortunately it has not been implemented, he says we cannot do it retrospectively and there is nothing we can do. However, the Government's amendment does not even commit to implementing the Duffy Cahill report. The reality is that the Government is saying there is nothing we can do for these workers. The workers should not be disheartened by that. I am sure they are not. They have seen this time and again, but they know their actions are telling. That is why an offer was made a number of weeks ago, completely inadequate as it was. They should keep up the action, the strike and the protests. Concessions can be won.

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