David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

As I have said time and again, the harsh reality is that Fine Gael represents a cosseted and privileged class. It is not just our perspective, as the facts speak for themselves. It will always put big banks ahead of struggling mortgage holders, the greedy landlord ahead of the hard-pressed rent payer, and an unscrupulous employer ahead of a disadvantaged and victimised worker. Over the past ten years, worker after worker has fought for his or her rights. In terms of legislation, what did the Government do after the Vita Cortex dispute in Cork? Nothing. After Waterford Crystal workers had to take the Government through the courts for their pension rights, no changes were made. Think of workers in La Senza, GAME and Clerys. The Government set up a review panel to consider what to do. We had to produce legislation, but the Government voted it down despite the fact that it was the Government's review panel that made those very recommendations. Recently, Debenhams workers have become the victims of a weakness in legislation and the base instincts of Fine Gael, which are Toryism and Thatcherism. Fine Gael will always side with big business, banks, landlords and unscrupulous employers against ordinary working people.

There is only one thing worse than a Tory Fine Gael Deputy, and that is a two-faced Fianna Fáil Deputy. Many Fianna Fáil Deputies have stood on picket lines with Debenhams workers in recent weeks. They had selfies taken with them. The same thing happened during the earlier Clerys dispute and many other disputes. They had the brass neck to turn up at those disputes time and again to give tea and sympathy only to enter this Chamber when legislation was proposed and vote it down. That is the harsh reality of what Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael have done.

Time and again, I have produced legislation, as has my party. In this instance, Deputy Munster has introduced a Bill to improve the lot of workers. Every time I come to the Chamber, I have some hope that Fine Gael will do something for workers, but every time there is a reason it cannot. The Minister of State referred to the voluntary system. This Bill would not change that. Rather, it would give someone the option to be represented by the trade union of his or her choice. That is all it does. Imagine if a party in this House were to say that someone could not have the right to be represented by a solicitor or barrister of his or her choice. There would be an uproar, yet the Minister of State and the Government believe it is okay for some workers not to be represented by a trade union of their choice.

That beggars belief but it is only more of the same old, same old from Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil. I came to the conclusion a long time ago that the Minister of State's party represents a cosseted and privileged class. That is why I could never vote for Fine Gael and would never give the party a transfer on the ballot paper, because I know what side it is on. Politics is about division and choices and whose side one is on. I know what side the Minister of State's party is on. I am firmly of the view that nothing will change until we have a different type of government and a Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation like Deputy O'Reilly, who fought for workers' rights in the trade union movement for many years. Unless we have a Minister of her calibre, or one from among the progressive parties of the left in this House, we are never going to get the changes that are required for workers.

The Minister of State needs to explain to us in clearer language why he cannot support this Bill. The speech he gave tonight is the same speech I have been listening to for the past five or ten years. It is hollow. Some time ago, I brought forward a Bill - into which I had put a lot of effort, working with the Mandate trade union - which sought to address the issue of if-and-when contracts. I recall a similar response from the Minister of State's party in government at that time, namely, that it could not be done. However, in that instance, when the pressure was put on, something was eventually done, although it did not go far enough and was the typical half-baked response from Fine Gael. The party was shamed into acting, which is what happens all the time. Shame on the Minister of State and his party for letting workers down again by not supporting a fair and reasonable Bill that would improve their lot.

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