Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Imelda Munster and her team for putting forward the Bill and for the discussion around it. While I might not agree on the necessity for it, it is still no harm to have the discussion and to go through it.

It is wrong, however, to portray this Government, including my party and our role in the Government, as being against improvements in workers' rights and conditions. That is absolutely not the case. There is a consistent effort by Sinn Féin and other speakers to portray the Tánaiste, my party leader, as someone who does not believe in improving workers' rights when all his actions have proven the opposite to that.

The Tánaiste has consistently made the right progress when it comes to parental leave, parental benefits, illness benefit and the changes that were driven during his time as Minister for Social Protection and during his work as Taoiseach working with other Ministers for social protection. In the Tánaiste's first few weeks in the job in this Department he very clearly set out that the State's role would change when it comes to implementing a statutory sick pay scheme. All of us have called for it for years and we have all talked about it, but he has stepped up, is going to do it and has started the process.

This portrayal or some other impression of the Tánaiste is the wrong one. It is a dishonest one that Sinn Féin keeps peddling. The public will judge that and will recognise the Tánaiste for the work he is trying to do and the efforts he makes. I look forward to working with the Tánaiste on this agenda in the years ahead and we will make progress in improving workers' rights and conditions, while also recognising the balance and the importance of being able to create jobs and to have an environment in the State where jobs can be created and which attracts investment. It is about the balance.

Members of Sinn Féin repeatedly and consistently, and certainly Deputy Cullinane, try to portray my party as being on one side or the other, and we are not. We are about balance and working for people's rights in this country and for the public interest. As a party we have consistently proven that through all our history. The Acting Chairman, Deputy Durkan, would be much better than I at portraying our party's history, but I can certainly say that when in government and on behalf of our party that is what we aim to do, and we work constantly to improve getting the balance right.

This constant thing that we are pro-landlord and against the tenant is not true. It is not borne out by work over the past four or five years, which I worked on with the former Ministers, Deputies Coveney and Eoghan Murphy, on the housing agenda. Nearly every piece of legislation we brought into the House was more pro-tenant than anything else, and tried to strengthen tenants' rights, and rightly so. Deputies should not come in here and tell me it is the opposite and that we are pro-landlord. That is not the case. Housing is a work in progress. I never claimed that it was completely fixed. It is certainly in a much improved space than it was four or five years ago, and is on the right track to being fixed permanently once and for all. That was led by a Fine Gael-led Government. This portrayal that we are against the tenant is not true. Repeatedly the accusation is made that we are against housing, social housing or affordable housing. Again, the track record does not prove that. Fine Gael brought the delivery of social housing to the highest it ever was in the State. This is on record and is proven. We were committed to it and we committed taxpayers' money to it. I recognise the taxpayers' role. It is their money and our job is to make sure it is spent in right way and under the right conditions. Of course we would like to do more but the constant portrayal that we are against that is not borne out by fact. People are beginning to see through that also and we will work on that.

With regard to banks, mortgage holders and protections for people's homes, I have listened for many years to claims that there was going to be tens of thousands of people shoved out of their houses by the banks. That did not happen because Fine Gael-led Governments did not let it happen. They put in place many protections to protect the family home for those who could not pay but wanted to pay and who made every effort. They were protected but consistently in here the opposite impression was given. The facts do not bear that out. This does not mean that there were not some sad cases that came through the courts, of course there were. I wish there was not. The portrayal that tens of thousands of people would be put out of their houses did not actually happen under our watch, because we did not let it.

The current Government and its programme for Government is committed to strengthening that position again for workers' rights. It is about getting that balance right because we also want investment and we want people to be able to get mortgages at the right price.

I would like to add to the comments on Fergus McCabe, who was well recognised for his role in Dublin's inner city. Most Members in the House would have known him and dealt with him. I extend my condolences to his family and friends and, importantly, to his community which he served for many years. I remember when he challenged the then leader of Fine Gael, former Taoiseach, Enda Kenny, to really deliver long term for the north inner city.

Enda Kenny responded to that with the Mulvey report, the implementation body and a commitment to long-term intervention. Fergus McCabe acknowledged that there were some short term improvements but he demanded there be medium and long term commitments too, and rightly so. That is now happening in the north inner city. I remember being at events and repeating that it was important that we did not just have two or three years of quick wins and that long-term intervention was needed. Fergus McCabe and many others have worked for that over a long number of years. I am not saying that the Mulvey report will solve everything but it certainly focused many Departments on an area that needed extra focus. Many have come into this House and called for similar approaches to be taken in other towns and villages, including Dundalk, Drogheda, Navan and elsewhere. That is what we are trying to do but Fergus McCabe and many others led the way in terms of that work and were ahead of many people in terms of what they were calling for in their area.

Lastly, I am not sure what is behind it but there have been some veiled attacks here on our current unions and the work they are doing. Those unions have served our country quite well and I am not sure what Sinn Féin and others, including Deputy Bríd Smith, are at in that regard. They are trying to sneakily undermine the work of the unions. I am not sure of their agenda, and that is up to them, but I want to call it out for what it is. There have been veiled attacks on the unions by some in here tonight.

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