Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I also welcome the Bill and thank its sponsors. It is timely because People Before Profit is putting a similar Bill before Stormont to repeal the anti-trade union legislation introduced by Maggie Thatcher many decades ago, which have been implemented by the Stormont regime. I welcome that as it gives us the sense that the same problems face workers all over Ireland, on both sides of the Border.

A war has been waged against working class people in this country for decades. It is often not overt - it is not the kind of thing that a person might see - but it is subtle and often dressed in language that seems to suggest otherwise. Partnership is often a word that is used, such as the social partnership model. It is a war nonetheless, and one side has been winning, namely, the employers and their backers in the State bodies and Government agencies directly responsible. The results of the war are seen in the headline rates and statistics of low pay, precarious contracts, the lack of sick pay schemes and pension entitlements. They are seen in the decline in union membership over the years and the fact that a whole generation of workers entering the workforce has never known the very idea of a stable, pensionable, and secure employment. It is like a pipe dream for those workers. It is also evident in the poor provision of all our public services, the services that workers need, the provision of decent housing, a decent health service, proper public transport and so on. On the front line of this war is the ability of workers to join a union and have their employers negotiate with it. In this, the State pretends to be neutral - the Minister of State's response indicates that - but that neutrality contrives with employers to ensure the imbalance between the relationship of employer and employee remains. A legal right by a worker to have his or her union recognised by his or her employer would be an important step forward to correct that imbalance, to give workers the confidence to look for the things that previous generations enjoyed and are being stripped away from them, such as decent pay, decent pension rights, sick leave entitlements and dignity and respect at work. Another debate is to be had, albeit not in this forum, about the type of union we need and whether the ones we have are doing the job that is required.

I wish to raise two groups of workers who illustrate the point I am making very well. First, I raise the Debenhams workers. Yesterday, a High Court injunction was issued to KPMG, a global corporate conglomerate, which often provides assistance to this State and others for consultancy and other matters like the carrying out of insolvency procedures. That injunction has insulted those workers who will have been out on strike for six months tomorrow. They are workers who have put their lives and those of their families on hold to achieve their just rights. Other Deputies have spoken about the Duffy Cahill report. The previous Government, of which the Minister of State was a member, failed to implement it. Now 1,000 workers from Debenhams have been thrown on the scrapheap because of the Government's failure. Instead of the Government moving to tell KPMG, the liquidators, to give Debenhams workers the priority in order of creditors, every time it is raised in the House, the Government responds with more legalistic jargon to say that it cannot be done.

I will cite Kieran Wallace, who went to the High Court yesterday. He is a highly experienced, well-versed legal representative of KPMG, who is working on this job of liquidating Debenhams. He told us at a meeting a couple of months ago that what is required is for the Irish Government to instruct KPMG that it will step aside as the primary creditor in the list of creditors for the liquidation. The Government can do that and if it does so, then KPMG can push the workers up in that list of priority. The Government is refusing to do that and is trying to bamboozle Deputies and parties here with legalistic jargon that we are not in a position to prove wrong.

At this point, the Irish Congress of Trade Unions needs to step up to the plate and demand an immediate and urgent meeting with the Government to make these points. I remember well how in 2005, as will others of my vintage, nearly 80,000 to 100,000 workers took to the streets for an afternoon. They went on strike - but it was not called that, it was called a day of protest - to defend the rights of workers in Irish Ferries, to stop the race to the bottom. It was an incredible occasion. ICTU should think very strongly about doing something similar and while we cannot breach public health and safety guidelines, we could organise a few hours or a half-day strike to demand justice for the Debenhams workers.

I wish to refer to Ryanair, the notoriously and proudly anti-union company. Last year, it was forced to recognise unions across Europe. I have with me a letter from a group of Ryanair trade union representatives from approximately seven European countries. According to it, eight workers were dismissed during their strikes - four union representatives and four cabin crew members. The base chief in Tenerife who was part of the strike committee was demoted in the afternoon after a mediation took place to avoid a strike. Three union representatives were dismissed in Prague. Cabin crews in Europe describe the "brilliant" model of Ryanair as being based on continuous disrespect for the most basic laws around union rights - an illegal model that is used to hire agency workers - as well as an ongoing atmosphere of threats to workers and poor working conditions.

Their question to us is how can Ryanair ask for state aid for its industry during Covid when it has used Irish labour law to employ workers in many countries and benefit from and take advantage of that market for 30 years. These are workers who are not based in Ireland, yet Ryanair cherry-picks the most beneficial laws and often ignores local laws in many countries. Now that Ryanair comes holding out its hand to the State, Ireland rewards it by appointing the former CEO of Malta Air, a subsidiary of Ryanair, as Aviation Regulator with the Irish Aviation Authority, IAA. The appointment of Mr. Diarmuid Ó Conghaile to the IAA is a disgrace.

I will finish by citing a famous clarion call for all workers: "An injury to one is an injury to all." That call must ring for us all when we attempt to redress the imbalance between employer and worker in this country. The Bill deserves all our support.

See this speech in context