Brendan Ryan (Labour)

In an extraordinary attempt by the worst kind of business practice to reassert its capacity to exploit, which is what the Irish Ferries dispute is about, one of the Government's arguments was that legislation offered to it in the other House could not be introduced because it would be in breach of European obligations.

I have before me amendment No. 63 to the Irish Medicines Board (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2005, with which we will deal later this afternoon. The Minister of State said we would need to get permission from the EU following its passage. I have no problem with that amendment. When it suits us we pass legislation first and then deal with the EU. However, when it comes to Irish workers being displaced by exploited cheap labour from eastern Europe, we cannot do so. That defines the problem. It is not that we cannot do so but that we will not. We urgently need a debate in this House. Many people are sick of the left-wing rhetoric of members of the Government which translates into capitulation every time they get a chance to draw breath. We have seen no action from the Government on this critical issue.

The same type of two-facedness applies on the sugar beet issue. Greencore bought into the sugar industry with its eyes wide open. Nobody in his or her right mind could have imagined the regime as it existed would continue. When Seagate closed in Clonmel and many other companies closed due to world forces, the workers were compensated. Nobody suggested the company must be compensated because the world caught up with them. For some reason, Greencore will be compensated for making a bad business decision. I thought this country was about risk taking and that was the reason we gave some adulation to all of these wonderful people. I cannot see any risk taking by the company directors of Irish Ferries or Greencore. Neither can I see any risk taking by the chief executives of banks whose companies were ripped off and who paid no price personally for it. All I can see is farmers and workers in County Cork and the rest of the country being exploited. Those already rich and powerful will end up richer and more powerful. As long as we allow that to happen, they will continue to treat people as they do.