Joe O'Toole (Independent)

I welcome the comments by the Taoiseach yesterday on behalf of the ferry workers. It raises an important point. Over the past seven or eight years, people in this House have discussed Members' involvement — or non-involvement — in the partnership process. This is a good example of why we need a partnership process. It would be useful to invite the Taoiseach or another member of the Cabinet to come in and outline our vision for the community in partnership. What we see happening at the moment with the ferry workers is anti-community, anti-partnership and is an attempt to bring us back to the future of the Spailpín Fánach, where we oppress immigrant and travelling workers and where we depress wages and give workers no rights. This is a community that has worked hard to give reasonable rewards to workers at all levels in the public and private sector over the past 15 to 20 years. It is not to be thrown away in the interests of greedy, grasping, miserable businesses that want to walk on those workers who have created the wealth that we are all sharing.

This company does not reflect the generality of businesses in Ireland. Most businesses are happy to make their profit and to pay their workers and that is as it should be. This is not an anti-business thing, but an anti-person thing. I would welcome an opportunity for Members of this House to state how they would like to see partnership working in this country, how they would like to see adequate reward for workers, the circumstances in place to ensure that we are competitive, how the wealth created in this nation is distributed and how the money is created for investment in public services. In six months time, people will stand up and claim that deals are being done here, there and everywhere and that the House should have an input into them. This is an opportunity for Members to talk to members of the Cabinet and inform them of what they do and do not want. The beauty of the partnership process is that it forces people of different points of view to listen to each other. They are not sitting in their own corner at their trade union meeting, chamber of commerce meeting or voluntary body meeting; they all must listen to each other. We could do with a bit of it in here. We could put arguments forward, see where the compromises must be made and have some input into shaping the future, a future that will be different from what Irish Ferries wants for its workers.