Richard O'Donoghue (Limerick County, Independent Ireland Party)

The Protection of Employees (Employers' Insolvency) (Amendment) Bill 2025 is a crucial piece of legislation. I will start off by looking at how Debenhams managed to pull the wool over the Government's and its employees eyes, and leave this country with no accountability. It set up a UK sister company and set up online. All its online business was imported into this country through a UK company, which showed in the books of Debenhams that it was dropping and dropping. That was not only done by Debenhams. It was done here by different companies.

Even in the creamery sector, there are companies such as Dairygold and others that tried to downsize and close down the creameries. They proceeded to go online in order that farmers could book their stuff online. However, if the farmer went to the local creamery and asked for five or ten tonnes of fertiliser, the creamery booked that online but it did not go through the business in that area. It went through an online portal which showed the books in that creamery to be less viable. We need to make sure this type of thing cannot happen here. We saw what Debenhams did here. Other major stakeholders in this country have done something similar. If we are to protect workers, we need to make sure that if a person orders something online from a local company, it goes into the local company's books and does not show up in a sister company and thereby undermine the company in the local area. We need to protect local companies and make sure workers are protected.

I was in the Seanad a few minutes ago where the Minister, Deputy Paschal Donohoe, was speaking. I brought to his attention the need to protect SMEs when I was first elected. Independent Ireland has been calling for the protection of SMEs since the start. The Minister has said that any person who employs someone in an SME should be looked at. While SMEs may not contribute as many benefits as the multinational companies, they are still wanted in this country in order that the entire country works. It has taken four or five years for the Government to see that. Why does Independent Ireland have such an issue with this? As an employer, I see it myself. In the hospitality sector, I see employers who are trying to keep people going. What we are seeing, however, is legislation being passed all the time and tax and VAT rates being changed. That only changes one thing, namely, the cost of opening the doors. It increases wage costs, which is good, but the problem is that the increased wage does not go any further because the cost of everything people are buying has been inflated.

The Government needs to look at the model it is using. It is one thing to increase the minimum wage and put extra money in people's pockets, but if it does not get a person anything extra, it is not an increase but an inflationary cost, which costs the companies to keep their doors open. The only person who gets more out of inflation is the Government. If we look at the watchdog over Government spending we see the bike shed outside. I had a visitor from a family resource centre with me a few minutes ago. The person said if the centre spends €500, it has to first get three quotes. The Government can build a bike shed for €336,000 and it is brushed under the carpet with no accountability, but a family resource centre has to get three quotes to spend €500. That is not transparent. If the Government is leading with this, it should lead by example. If it is good enough for an employer and an employee, it has to be good enough for the Government to work within the same regulations.

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