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

Yesterday, the Déise five occupied the Debenhams store in Waterford city in protest at the refusal of KPMG to talk. These workers want real talks unhindered by the introduction of non-union scab labour into the stores or the intervention of gardaí against peaceful protests, which we have seen now in no fewer than three stores during the past five days. The programme for Government raises the possibility of improving workers' rights in liquidation situations, a tacit admission that workers' rights may not currently be what they should be here. Given all this, is the Taoiseach prepared now clearly, strongly and unequivocally to call for the withdrawal of non-union scab labour from these stores, to call for a stop to the involvement of the gardaí in this peaceful industrial dispute and, last but not least, to call on KPMG to end its refusal to talk and to call for real talks to begin aimed at formulating a meaningful proposal for the workers with a view to ending this dispute?

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