Cathy Bennett (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)

This Bill will better protect employees’ unpaid wages and entitlements if their employer becomes insolvent. I would commend the Government on introducing it but let us be real. It is a matter of obligation more than choice. The Government did not push to protect worker entitlements when they were denied on foot of the Vita Cortex insolvency in 2011, nor did the Government spring into action when the Clerys insolvency saw 460 jobs lost and workers denied their due in 2015. Not even when it was thousands of workers in the case of the Debenhams closure in 2020 did Government efforts exceed empty platitudes. Quite literally, the State left those workers out in the cold. No, the reason this Bill is before us is a Supreme Court decision dating back to 2018. Even though the Government realised its legislative framework failed to meet the minimum standards under EU law, it has taken seven years for it to meet its obligation to workers.

While I would welcome this Bill as a break from a shameful past, the past few weeks have shown this to be anything but the case. Pension auto-enrolment is delayed, providing additional sick leave to workers is shelved and scrapping the carer’s means test is nowhere to be seen. Commitments made are delayed in the face of economic turbulence, or that is what this Government tells us out of one side its mouth at least. The explanation simply does not hold water. Out of the other side of their mouths, the same Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael Ministers will tell us that cost-of-living measures are no longer necessary.

All of this is self-defeating because when working people and families have chosen to pay rent rather than buy groceries, small businesses in their communities see decreased business and suffer too. This contributes to insolvencies. When workers attend work if they are ill and know they should not have to, this only contributes to the spread of flu and other illnesses. Does that not contribute to the strain on our health services and GP offices?

What of the promise to end discriminatory sub-minimum youth pay rates? We cannot do that because of economic uncertainty, or so Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael will say. They will tell us that some young workers would be better off with more hours if they were saving for college because the price just went up €1,000 and rent pressure zones are on top of the chopping block. Economic uncertainty be damned when it comes to ordinary workers, young people and carers.

If ordinary workers cannot afford to live, then businesses, especially local small-to-medium-sized businesses, cannot thrive. Sinn Féin’s approach is different and the proof is in the work of my party colleague, Caoimhe Archibald, the minister who recently introduced Sinn Féin's good jobs Bill in the Assembly. It is a Bill that will ensure fairer treatment of workers, including better net pay, tips, holiday pay and parental leave, which will promote a stronger regional economy that benefits businesses. I commend her on introducing that Bill, which sets out the standard for workers’ rights on this island. The Government here would do well to take notice and do the same.

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