Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, Independents 4 Change) | Oireachtas source

The Debenhams workers organised a meeting last Thursday. Representatives from many political parties, including Fianna Fáil, were at that meeting. The workers were filling us in about the outcome of the Workplace Relations Commission, WRC, negotiations - or non-negotiations, as such. They raised serious issues about what can be done under the legal framework of insolvency. They said that it looks as if the ongoing impasse will mean that the current asset value of the liquidated Debenhams business might be depleted by the end of the year. This will affect not only the workers but also the State, which would potentially forgo many millions of euro due to it as a preferential creditor. It was also explained that the workers had been offered €500,000, down from €1 million.

This dispute is now into its eighth month. The Taoiseach talks about his sympathy for those 1,000 workers but he still does nothing. We are eight months on. The Debenhams workers' union, Mandate, have written to the Taoiseach twice, on 22 October and 2 November, and he has not replied on either occasion. Words and sympathy are all well and good but what the workers want is action. We are now 215 days into this dispute. It is clear that the liquidators, KPMG, are not going to meet the workers' legitimate redundancy claim. The Taoiseach could act. He could move with urgency to establish a public State insolvency fund to deal with the situation faced by the Debenhams workers, a situation that will, most likely, be faded by other workers in the future. It has been faced by workers in the past. The Taoiseach could establish such a fund and make the payment to the Debenhams workers a priority. As I have stated previously, such a fund could be financed by a small increase in employers' PRSI. This could have been included in the recent budget. A figure of €10 million is a modest amount compared with the supports being given to businesses through loans and grants during the Covid crisis. Will the Taoiseach give a commitment to act now? This matter will only be resolved politically, it will not be resolved under the insolvency legislation. The Taoiseach should try to resolve this dispute and protect workers into the future.

It is now 1,715 days - in other words, four years and eight months - since the Duffy Cahill report was issued and still no action has been taken. The Taoiseach promised yet another review but where is it? When the Duffy Cahill report was issued, it was strongly opposed by IBEC. Is that still the position? Is IBEC still opposing it? Is it because of lobbying by employers that no action has been taken on this matter? Perhaps there is a whistleblower out there who might let us know what is really going on.

I had another point to make but I will come back to the Taoiseach on that another time. The Debenhams workers cannot be left out on the picket line for another week, two weeks, three weeks or four weeks. The liquidator is saying it will potentially walk away on 23 December. What will that mean for everybody involved? The Debenhams workers need to be protected and we need political intervention.

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