Brendan Ryan (Labour)

I assume the rules of this House are applied in the same way to everybody who speaks here and that we will be left with no uncertainty about this in the future.

I ask the Leader for a debate on workers' protection legislation for a number of reasons, including the apparent stalemate on whether we will have a further partnership agreement. While this stalemate crystalised around one issue, it developed from the frustration of the trade union movement at the inertia of the Government on issues such as the expansion of the industrial inspectorate. It was agreed it would be expanded dramatically. However, the expansion has not been fully completed. A group of Polish workers made serious allegations about being grossly underpaid. Six months later the inspectors had still not begun their investigations. They stated they did not have the numbers. Unfortunately, one of this country's characteristics is that we are far better at introducing new legislation than enforcing it. This week five people died in industrial accidents. The two issues concern the environment in which people work. Everybody accepts employees must operate safely. However, it is ultimately an employer's responsibility to provide a safe working environment. We must examine all of the legislation in place. The Minister should come in to the House to discuss all of these issues and how we can provide people with a proper, safe and non-exploitative work environment.

We need a debate on the Ferns report. A Minister should come to the House and respond to it. I do not want to blame the Government. This is not a matter on which I wish to create a political conflict. However, we must discuss some of the issues involved. The Roman Catholic Church has discussed at length the framework document which is supposed to create guidelines. Nobody told me the church had submitted the framework to Rome nine years ago. I did not know this until I saw the report. It is in the gift of the authorities in Rome to make the framework obligatory under Canon Law but nine years on it has still not done so. Only the Vatican can compel a bishop to implement the framework. I find it extraordinary that after nine of the most traumatic years in the history of the Catholic Church, the authorities in Rome are still shy in insisting that every bishop in Ireland operates according to best practice. We should not discuss the failures of the State. We should discuss the degree to which a large institution within the State seems unwilling to take what everybody else now knows to be the right action.