George Lawlor (Wexford, Labour)

I never thought I would see the day when I would stand in this august Chamber and say that Winston Churchill appeared to have more affinity and commitment to the workers of Ireland than the Fianna Fáil party and this Government. In 1909, Winston Churchill brought in the trade boards so that underrepresented, undervalued and underpaid workers could be represented by the trade boards. In 1946, this was dealt with by a man who must be spinning in his grave, a man who sat in this Chamber, a man of the Fianna Fáil Party who did so many wonderful things for this country at a time when we needed it most, Seán Lemass. He must be spinning in his grave as he hears that the Government is opposing this long overdue Bill and, in doing so, is effectively supporting powerful employers to ride roughshod over undervalued and underpaid workers in this State.

As I said, I do not think the Minister of State's heart is in the response she gave, to be honest. I do not think that, when reading it, she was committed to what was in that response. As I said, I think she has been thrown under the bus. This is a shocking admission by the Government that it is not going to support underpaid and undervalued workers, and it is going to facilitate powerful employers to veto a structure that was set up in 1946 by Seán Lemass to facilitate workers being represented at JLCs.

The Minister of State spoke about it being adversarial. What is adversarial is when powerful employers refuse to engage in a mechanism that has worked in other sectors. In her response, the Minister of State spoke about the childcare and security sectors, and how they had seen great improvements in their conditions. The reason they saw great improvements in their conditions was because both sides engaged with the JLC process. The Minister of State is sort of arguing against herself, or the piece of paper she is reading from is arguing against itself, by saying that that was great but, God, we cannot allow adversarial situations to come up, and we must avoid any legal proceedings that may take place following a binding agreement that is reached in a JLC in a respectful manner. We could do with Winston back - the British bulldog - to say to Irish workers: “I will represent you”. This Government is clearly not representing workers in areas like the hotel sector.

The Minister of State said it is premature. In 1909 and 1946, mechanisms were introduced into this country, even when we were under British rule and later by Seán Lemass, to ensure that workers in low-paid sectors got their representation. They were not looking for the moon. They were looking for decent, honourable representation. How did the powerful employers get around that? They said they would ignore the whole set-up, employ their legal advisers to tell them what to do, and ignore the whole set-up and not play any role or part in it. Therefore, for the little guy - the man or woman working in a hotel on low pay – the employers can walk all over them.

That is what we are doing. That is what the Government is acceding to by refusing to accept this non-radical, very simple proposal of a Bill to improve the lot of workers and workers’ rights. I urge the Minister of State, Deputy Smyth, to go back to the Fine Gael Minister of State who has thrown her under the bus. I ask her to get him to reflect. I knew when the Minister of State was reading it out that her heart and soul were certainly not in the text that was on that sheet. That is not her style. I urge her to go back to her colleagues in government and ask them to respect the rights of low-paid workers in this country, in a sector that needs it most. I ask her to reflect on the history of the great party that she comes from and on a man who did so much for this country. He wanted to establish mechanisms to support workers’ rights. I ask the Minister of State to reflect on that before the vote next week.

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