Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú) | Oireachtas source

The importance of trade unions in this country cannot be overstated. They provide an enormous bulwark against the specific objectives of some businesses to push down workers' terms and conditions and a balance within the labour system.

One example of that is Tara Mines in Navan. As we know, it is the largest lead and zinc mine in Europe. A company called Boliden had been making massive profits out of an Irish natural resource for many years and all of a sudden, last June it started to turn the screw and squeeze the workers in respect of pay and terms and conditions. It is an incredible situation where nearly 700 workers lost their jobs directly and up to 2,000 workers in total had their jobs completely pushed aside. In that eight-month period, the management of Tara Mines has done its damnedest to bring a wrecking ball to the pay and terms and conditions of those workers. It has used the labour resolution infrastructure of this State to harry and push the trade unions to relinquish the rights of those workers in that scenario.

At the time, Leo Varadkar promised that everything would be done to protect the workers, but nothing has been done. In fact, Tara Mines has sought to renew its mining licence, put in applications for solar farms and gone on with business as usual with the State, yet it has been fighting and hammering its workers. Even the local Intreo office, I understand, has been inundated with requests for transfers from its workers, because that office has been hammered with all the new people looking for income supports from social welfare. The only bulwark that has existed for the rights of those workers has been the trade unions, namely, SIPTU, Unite and Connect. They have been the only line of defence for those workers.

Time is running out, however, because the social welfare for most of those workers will change in four weeks, meaning their payments will be means tested. Many of them will see their incomes fall to maybe €15 or €20 a week because those payments will be means tested. Time is rapidly running out for hundreds of workers in Meath. In fact, many of those workers who have taken part-time jobs have had to relinquish their social welfare because of the small income they are receiving for those part-time jobs.

There needs to be a rebalancing of the relationship between trade unions and workers. Otherwise, there will be a race to the bottom in terms of the rights of workers right across the State. This Private Members' Bill offers strength and support to workers who wish to be members of a trade union and have its support. It is a small and simple step in helping workers to make that choice. There are many other things I would like to see done in terms of trade union rights. There needs to be an absolute and real right to collective bargaining in this State but that does not exist at the moment. As a result, workers' rights are weakened in the context of achieving justice. We need to make sure that life-long learning is provided to workers and that they have a right to that within the system. If the Government continues to stand on the sideline and allows large companies such as Boliden to flex their muscles and reduce the rights of workers, we will see devastation among families right across the State.

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