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

We are debating Covid restrictions and the Debenhams workers have been victims of Covid restrictions. They have been limited in the action they can take because of the Covid restrictions despite the fact their company used Covid as a cover to sack them by email, despite the fact they were forced to picket in a level 5 lockdown and despite the fact their campaign has been a litmus test for how workers are treated in a period of Covid. I want to make some brief points. The workers demand was for two plus two. They did not receive one penny extra above the statutory in the offer they received last night. Instead, a fund of €3 million for education and training, of extremely limited value, was offered to a group of workers, many of whom are coming to the end of their working careers and working lives and many of whom are already in training.

I echo the call from the shop stewards for that €3 million to be put into a cash offer and put towards topping up the workers' redundancies. In Cork this morning, the workers have unfurled a banner in Patrick Street that states, "The Taoiseach has let us down badly". Never was a truer word spoken. In September, they were offered €1 million above the statutory redundancy.

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