Thomas Gould (Cork North-Central, Sinn Fein)

I thank Solidarity and People before Profit for introducing this Bill. I am sure Deputy Richard Boyd Barrett is watching this debate closely today. I wish him all the best. I know everyone else feels the same.

I am a proud Irish republican and also a proud union member, which I have been all my working life. Republicans and workers right across this island – workers are republicans – are building towards an island based on the ideals of the 1916 Proclamation. When the Citizens' Army stood up for workers, it protected all workers and built a link between the cause of Irish unity and the cause of labour. That is why Sinn Féin stands on the side of workers. It is why workers' rights and equality are entwined in the party's principles and policies. It is why we would deliver a right to organise. James Connolly once said, "Men perish, but principles live." We have lost many great republicans but their principles live on. Their dedication to workers' rights on this island and to the people who call this island their home is our driving force. We now have a Government that wants to row back on promises it made to workers. It wants to undermine the cause of labour and blame it on tariffs and economics.

David Krause once said of Jim Larkin that his aim was to organise unions, not strikes. One hundred and twelve years later, we must still fight for the right to organise. Just as republicans stood against William Martin Murphy and the king of England in 1913, we stand today against the current Government and its kingmaker, Michael Lowry. Patriots know that the cause of labour is the cause of Ireland. The people of Ireland will be free only when we own everything from the plough to the stars.

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