Gino Kenny (Dublin Mid West, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I probably will not need all my time. These are slightly surreal circumstances. Normally, I would not moralise about attendance at debates, but this is pretty pathetic. It is a poor attendance from other Teachtaí, and that is a pity because this is an important subject.

I thank the Office of Parliamentary Legal Advisers, OPLA, and those in our party for their fantastic work on this legislation. It is a good and timely Bill. As Deputy Boyd Barrett said, the onset of Covid-19 has caused a light to be shined on migrant workers. They suffered badly in the circumstances and in the environments in which they have lived. The basic rights of workers in respect of what is contained in this Bill encompasses those in the meat processing, horticulture and dairy sectors. The activities in these areas are worth enormous amounts of money.

The meat processing sector alone is worth €4 billion to the Irish economy and 70% of those who work in that industry are migrants. There is a big chunk of people mainly from eastern Europe and Brazil who come to Ireland to live a better life and to work. We should know all about that as Irish people went all over the world and were terribly exploited in some cases. Through that, workers organised themselves through unions, regardless of what their nationality was, and through strikes. That crossed the borders of jingoism and racism and all that divides people. The ruling class tried to divide people. For workers it is almost irrelevant what their nationality is if they have a bad employer. I commend the unions in this country that have tried to organise workers in this sector. It is a very difficult sector to organise because of the nature of the job.

The main thrust of the Bill concerns employment permits and giving workers a right to switch employer after six months. That is very important. Workers are sometimes in a kind of latter-day slavery because they are tied to an employer. That goes on. Workers are brought to this country and employed for a certain amount of time. They are almost like serfs. Access to sick pay is also very important, as was highlighted during Covid. There was a meat processing plant in Clondalkin where workers were very sick. Some had to still go into work because they had no backup. That is a pretty dire situation. The Bill is really good. It shines a light on migrants who play a very positive part in Ireland. In the last 25 years migrants have transformed this country into one that welcomes people regardless of whether they are in an urban environment or a rural one. Workers were going into places that foreign migrants mostly were not going into because of the nature of the job. They work very hard. Some of them love Ireland but there is no getting away from the fact that some migrant workers are extremely badly paid and badly exploited. This Bill addresses those issues. It goes further than the Government is saying. Migrants have to be protected. What is important in all this is that migrants are Irish workers regardless of their nationality. An injury to one is an injury to all. That togetherness has made the labour movement and trade unionism very strong. If a worker is being exploited or put down, that togetherness is put to the employer. In our eyes as socialists, that has been the driving force of the labour movement. Regardless of nationality, workers come together in solidarity and where there is exploitation they challenge it.

Every time the Minister of State is in front of us he is saying "No" to these Bills. I hope one day he will say "Yes". It is unfortunate that he is saying "No" in this case but he might think again.

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