Mick Barry (Cork North Central, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

I wish to make some points about the CRSS scheme and the conditions attached to it. Amendment No. 22 proposes that four conditions be attached. In order to be eligible to get the CRSS an employer would need to demonstrate that he or she pays a living wage to employees. If an employee wishes to join a trade union, he or she must have the facility to have the union recognised in the workplace. The employer must operate a sick leave scheme for employees and must also make contributions to a pension scheme for employees.

The Minister is not opposed, in principle, to the idea of conditions being attached because there is already one condition, which is that the employer in question be tax-compliant. I propose that these four conditions be added.

The essence of the matter is this. Does the CRSS arrangement effectively have no conditions attached, or just one? Could we use this as a lever to improve the rights of workers in the workplace? In other countries, a similar type of scheme has been used as a lever with those types of conditions attached. I am arguing the same should be done with this. The scheme uses taxpayers' money and we should see the maintenance of businesses and jobs but also the improvement of workers' rights in those conditions of employment.

I do not accept the argument that the Minister makes about this being a threat to businesses and jobs. The achievement of basic, standard and decent workers' rights in a place of employment should not be an issue when it comes to the future of a job or the place of employment.

The CRSS is available to a business that has a premises. Taxi drivers comprise a category that should be able to apply for the CRSS as their standard of living and incomes have been decimated by Covid-19. The measures taken in the budget to counteract this have not gone nearly far enough to compensate the taxi drivers in any measure. It seems unfair that if a business has a premises, the owner can apply for CRSS but taxi drivers cannot do it. The cab should be counted as a premises and the taxi drivers should be included in this scheme. I am sure Deputy Boyd Barrett will have something to say on this matter as well.

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