Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I congratulate Claire on the birth of Grace O'Leary. I was aware of the pregnancy from my conversations with organisers of the picket over recent months and their concerns for Claire during her pregnancy in what has been a very difficult situation arising from the liquidation of Debenhams and the failure, in my view, to honour the collective agreement Debenhams had entered into with the workers. The workers are not being treated fairly.

I will meet representatives of Mandate to discuss the issue further and see if we can find a way to deal with this. It is not easy, and it is not simple. I have consistently warned that those who claim it is simple and easy are misrepresenting the situation. The idea that in every liquidation in the future the State would offer up whatever it was owed would be a real incentive to rogue employers of the future. Let us not pretend that in the future people could not exploit company law or exploit situations. The Deputy is suggesting setting a completely new precedent which would have significant implications that would need to be examined. We have committed to giving greater parity to collective agreements in future liquidation situations or equal parity to others. That should happen and the Government is prepared to introduce legislation to facilitate that.

In trying to resolve this current row it is about seeing what we can do to try to support the workers over and above what they will be receiving from the State. The State is honouring its role here and meeting its commitments on statutory redundancy. In this case the private sector has not met its commitments. That is the core of the issue. Historically the raison d'êtreof statutory redundancy has been that the State is there to give a very basic level of redundancy to those made redundant in the event of the failure of their primary employers to do so. That is always the context around situations like this.

Notwithstanding the real hardship and difficulties people are going through, it is not that simple to just change what has been established precedent in this matter and also to do so without a range of unintended consequences.

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