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

We have had many discussions on Debenhams in this House and we have had a committee discussion on Cahill Duffy. The authors of the Cahill Duffy report have not backed the Deputy up on his claims that the implementation of the recommendations would effect any case in Debenhams. My colleagues and I have looked at this quite a lot over the last couple of month and I see no evidence that the recommendations in the Cahill Duffy - the Deputy keeps referring to Duffy Cahill but it is the Cahill Duffy report - would help the cause. There is no proof of that. The authors have not said that. The committee has not said that yet. This is what we are looking at. If we can strengthen the legislation, we are committed to doing it.

The recommendations of the Cahill Duffy report were specific to a case and to certain cases being dealt with. Those recommendations were looked at before by previous Departments. We are committed to looking at them again in light of other events to see if they are worth implementing. We are focused on that. Others have made other suggestions and we take all of that on board. The Deputy repeatedly comes in here and makes claims regarding the Debenhams situation and I have not seen evidence to back up his claims about assets and movement of online assets. The courts will judge that and laws are in place to track assets if they have been removed and so on. The Deputy keeps saying this. I have repeatedly suggested that if he has any evidence, he should present it.

The chair of the Labour Court met with all involved, reviewed this and made recommendations. Again, they do not seem to mirror the Deputy's interpretation. The Deputy has to be honest with workers. He references money and assets which he claims are there, but the courts do not seem to back him up on that. They will judge this in a liquidation context.

We are committed as a Government to doing all we can to help the workers of Debenhams. We have worked with the Labour Court chair to put in place a fund that will enable the workers to find new jobs, reskill and retrain for other areas or start up their own business within the retail sector or another sector. That is a significant fund on behalf of the taxpayer to help their cause as well as reviewing the legislation. More importantly, the State has paid out the statutory entitlement. That is what the State is there to do: to back up statutory entitlements when workers are made redundant in insolvency situations.

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