Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE) | Oireachtas source

Thirteen months of heroic struggle from the Debenhams workers met with 13 months of excuses, excuses and more excuses from the Government. I congratulate the Minister of State. He managed to sum up the Government's response over more than a year in his ten minute speech which started "Of course I sympathise with the workers" - you cannot have anything but sympathy with the workers - but then went on to say that the workers' rights and entitlements are already protected in law, implicitly asking what on earth we are doing here and what on earth the Debenhams workers have been doing on a picket line for 13 months. He went on to accept that in law they are not protected, their first two are protected in redundancy payments but the plus two is very clearly not protected. The Minister of State then suggested we could have a conversation about that when we have a very good Bill before the House today that could proceed to Second Stage. If the Government has particular proposals, we could amend the Bill on Committee Stage. However, instead the Minister of State wants to have a conversation about it, that is, he does not want to talk about it at all but kick it to touch. He then had the temerity to say that there has been dishonesty around this conversation. There certainly has been dishonesty around this, and cynical politicking by the establishment parties around this issue. There is no question about that, because we have had a Government offer nothing but sympathy and excuses for over a year.

There is something deeply ironic about the arguments the Government is deploying today because for 13 months the workers were told, and we were told, that nothing can be done. The very fact that the training fund offer has been made demonstrates that something could have been done, something still can be done, and a different offer could have been made. That is obvious to anybody. Effectively, the Government's argument was retrospection. One cannot do anything backward, one cannot go back and fix this situation. Okay, let us take that at face value. We have here today a proposal that is not retrospective but prospective.

It is a proposal to ensure that no other groups of workers are treated like the Debenhams workers. That is what it is. The excuse that the Government has had for more than a year no longer holds any water. What does the Government say now? All of a sudden, it is not in favour of dealing with it prospectively either but is instead in favour of kicking it down the line. In reality, it is in favour of the problem going away.

Reference has been made to La Senza, Vita Cortex, Clerys and many other examples of workers who have faced a similar situation. A Deputy earlier made the point that the Government does not seem to learn from its mistakes. If a mistake happens over and over again, and the mistake always seems to benefit big business at the expense of workers, perhaps it is time to ask whether it is a mistake at all. Is it an accident that Government policy proceeds to protect, defend and take the side of big businesses that screw over workers, as opposed to those workers who were thrown on the scrapheap?

This Bill would place workers first in future liquidations. We have had 13 months of Government Deputies and Ministers, some of whom have visited picket lines, shedding tears about the former Debenhams workers. Now is the time when they get the chance to put their money where their mouth is. If they do that, they will reject the Government's proposal to kick the issue down the road and delay the Bill for another 12 months, and would instead pass this legislation today.

I pay tribute to the Debenhams workers for the heroic chapter they have written in Irish and labour history. It will continue to serve as an inspiring example to other groups of workers who, unfortunately, will be faced with the same situation in the coming months and years as the Government lets these companies away with it. It has shown workers they can struggle and fight back. However, through that struggle, they have also shone a light on many truths about our society. One of those truths is the nature of the State we have and in whose interests it operates. Nothing made that clearer than when members of the Garda went in heavy-handed and attacked former Debenhams workers on the picket line. The workers and their supporters were manhandled and dragged out, thrown around and onto the ground, in order to break their picket lines. On Monday, 40 gardaí and six police vans were used to break up a peaceful picket and to support scab trucks taking stock out of the Waterford shop. If we had a police force that was genuinely designed to protect the interests of all, the Garda Commissioner, Drew Harris, would be resigning because of the Garda's facilitation of illegal, non-essential work to break a legitimate strike and protest. It is clear to people that the Government, the Garda and the processes at work here serve the interests of the likes of Debenhams and not the interests of its workers.

See this speech in context